Emergency services personnel carried out several scorched, bloodied and bruised bodies from Canyon Technical Services on Sept.16 during a scheduled emergency response plan exercise.
These bodies, of course, were covered in makeup and paint, but the potential threat everyone was preparing for is real; an explosion.
"We hope we never have an emergency but unless you plan and train for it, you can never be ready," said Joe Peskunowicz, executive vice president of Canyon Services Group. "Everytime we do it, we find little things we make note of and do a little better next time. It's a corporate responsibility to our employees, their families, to our neighbours and everyone in the community that we train ourselves for these situations."
The script for the exercise began with an explosive device going off upon its arrival at the front desk reception area of Canyon. Fire fighters entered the building, which was transformed into a grisly scene that mirrored that of a disaster movie, and helped the injured evacuate the building. Paramedics stepped in shortly after to assess the injured and put them on stretchers.
Similar training sessions have been done internally in the past, but for the first time in Canyon's history, Estevan emergency services members were involved with the exercise.
"The feedback we received from all the local emergency services was was just outstanding," said Peskunowicz. "They were happy to get that extra bit of training and experience in dealing with these situations."
He described the inclusion of local emergency services in their internal training program as a "natural evolution" for these exercises, which Peskunowicz and other staff members monitor from their command centre in Calgary.
"The training that involved all of those groups is going to make everyone better," said the vice president.
Helen Fornwald, Estevan's emergency measures co-ordinator said she was pleased with how things went last Tuesday and is now looking forward to the debriefing sessions with emergency services that will highlight the positives, but more importantly the mistakes, that can lead to improvements.
"Communication is huge in any mock disaster exercise but there's always room for improvement," noted Fornwald.
Paul Ladouceur, Estevan's police chief, who has participated in similar exercises like the one at Canyon, explained how they use this practise to generate "what if" conversations with each other. He said there's less of an emphasis on speed and physical supremacy in these practise sessions.
"In real life threat, there wouldn't be this much activity on site," said Ladouceur, referring to the bustling crowd of employees, press and emergency services crowding the front of the building. "This is more of a walkthrough than an action-packed exercise."
Alongside the more rapid evacuation process, which in a real disaster would have a heavier focus on getting injured out safely, not the deceased, Ladouceur said the perimeter for the scene of the accident - in this case at Canyon - would be stretched all the way to Kensington.
"We can't really do that right now without interfering with other businesses in the area," he said during the training session.
Peskunowicz praised Estevan's drive to participate in Canyon's scheduled emergency response exercise.
"The willingness of all the city's services to make the city a safer place really makes us feel good about being a part of Estevan."
