Building communication was the aim behind a multi-agency emergency response training exercise hosted recently by the 150 Mile Volunteer Fire Department.
Senior Captain Conrad Turcotte organized the event, inviting the RCMP, B.C. Emergency Health Services, Central Cariboo Search and Rescue and the Miocene Volunteer Fire Dept.
“It’s difficult if it’s a strange group of people that show up at an emergency that you’ve never seen before and you have to work with them,” Turcotte said.
The scenario involved a two-vehicle collision. One SUV was on its side with three injured teenagers inside, another vehicle was upright with two teenagers inside, and two had fled the scene and were hiding in a nearby building.
While Turcotte asked Rose Lake Miocene 4-H club members to pose as patients and witnesses for the scenario and makeup artist Kristen Foote to enhance the scene, he hadn’t ordered the snowy conditions which made the scenario that much more realistic.
CCSAR’s portable LED battery-powered lighting proved to be instrumental for the dark conditions.
Read more: VIDEO: 150 Mile Volunteer Fire Dept. hosts all-agency emergency response training exercise
Turcotte said 150 Mile VFD started doing the sessions so that all the command people would start to work together.
“150 is really easy because we have good communication with the RCMP, ambulance and search and rescue,” Turcotte said.
Amber Nehring, a 4-H parent, said club members have participated in the past.
“It is a good exercise for learning drivers to participate in,” she said.
During a debriefing after the 90-minute exercise, Deputy Chief Paul McCarthy said he saw good communication during the exercise.
When McCarthy asked the youth if they were treated as patients with respect and dignity, they all answered “yes.”
McCarthy said during 9/11 in New York, 340 firefighters died and less than 100 police officers died.
“You know why? Because as the firefighters were going in the police were getting radio confirmation that the buildings were going to collapse. They never told that to the firefighters. The police had the intel.”
McCarthy said the 150 Mile FVD has also started doing a few minutes of stretching after attending calls.
“They say if you don’t eliminate that stress, it compounds it and it becomes a four-lane highway instead of pathway in the brain.”
Fire Chief Stan McCarthy said especially after “bad” calls the stretching is proving to be very effective.
“You wouldn’t believe how much it relieves you. I was just amazed. It really works.”
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