Local emergency responders will be dealing with disaster this weekend as part of a large-scale training exercise.
The training event will be held Saturday, May 14 in Sicamous at the Waterway Houseboats site in Two Mile. It has been organized to practise joint emergency management response procedures in the course of a major event.
“Full-scale exercises are valuable to validate training, emergency plans and procedures, determine any gaps or weaknesses in an emergency program, and provide an opportunity for personnel to practise and improve agency and personal performance in a realistic yet safe environment, with artificially induced stressors,” states a news release from the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Shuswap Emergency Program (SEP), which is co-ordinating the event.
Participating in the training exercise are: BC Ambulance Service, RCMP, first responder groups, Eagle Valley Rescue Society, the Salmon Arm Fire Rescue Unit, CSRD Fire departments, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue and Shuswap Emergency Support Services.
“This exercise has two underlying themes – a simulated significant fire occurring over and near water with associated complications, followed by a simulated hazardous materials spill into a lake used by many as a drinking water source,” says SEP co-ordinator Cliff Doherty.
Anyone wishing to attend is asked to RSVP to sep@csrd.bc.ca,. Parking will be provided on the opposite side of Highway 97A from Waterway Houseboats, on Two Mile Road (the road to the landfill) in the gravel parking lot.