Oshawa prepares for the worst with training exercise
The exercise, which took place at the city’s Consolidated Operations Depot (above) helps ensure the city’s plans and processes are working properly in the event of a real emergency. (Oshawa Express file photo).
By Aly Beach/The Oshawa Express
The City of Oshawa is “prepared to respond to any emergency,” says Mayor John Henry and a recent exercise helped reinforce that notion.
On May 17, City of Oshawa staff started its annual, legally required emergency plan training to help city staff and community partners be prepared in the case of an emergency.
“We’re exercising components of our emergency management plan to make sure everything is in proper order and functioning,” said Oshawa Fire Chief Derrick Clark.
According to Clark, the training was based around a hypothetical natural gas explosion on King Street East. In the exercise, there were fatalities, injuries, infrastructure damage, smoke issues and traffic problems.
“We’ve had to evacuate sections of the downtown core. We are looking at disruption of the whole core at the centre of the city and all the businesses connected to that area,” said Clark, referring to the hypothetical fall out of the explosion.
About 30 minutes into the hypothetical disaster Henry and Clark declared a state of emergency, launched the city’s emergency master plan and the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), located at the Consolidated Operations Depot, was set up.
From there, city services and community partners, such as CLOCA, DRPS, Durham Emergency Office (DEMO) and Oshawa PUC gathered to help solve the hypothetical problems from the imaginary explosion. All city services worked under one umbrella.
“Fire crews are working with unified command, so with DRPS, EMS, city staff, and the region as well,” said Clark.
As handling the hypothetical disasters progresses, representatives from various groups attend a “business management meeting” to discuss progression and how things are being handled. From there, the Emergency Information Officer and the media are tasked with informing the public.
The emergency plan training exercise is done differently every year. This is year was a gas explosion but they’re dealt with emergencies such as ice storms in the past. The exercise allows city staff to become familiar with the process and protocols in the event of these different emergencies.
“We’re giving staff the opportunity prepared and get training. A lot of people… get to touch the dashboard, the forms and communications network that we’re doing, so it gives everyone a bit of experience,” says Clark.
To give the most amount of experience, the groups were rotated halfway through the day to allow more people to train and participate.
“We’re trying to expose as many people as possible to the operations in the EOC and give everyone some experience. So when we do have an event, we’re prepared.”