Updated Wednesday, May 18
Firefighters, paramedics, search and rescue crews, police and other Shuswap emergency responders converged on the Waterway Houseboats site at Two Mile in Sicamous on Saturday, May 14, to attend a fire on the docks and a motor-vehicle incident involving a hazardous material spill into Mara Lake.
The large training exercise, arranged through the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Shuswap Emergency Program, in collaboration with Waterway and the District of Sicamous, was an opportunity to undertake a large scale response effort, both on and behind the scenes.
The exercise brought together crews from several CSRD fire departments, BC Ambulance, the Eagle Valley Rescue Society, Sicamous and Salmon Arm RCMP, Shuswap Emergency Support Services, the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, Shuswap and Vernon search and rescue members, the Ministry of Environment, CSRD and District of Sicamous staff, Waterway Houseboats staff and others.
The action began with a smoky bang, signalling an explosion on one of the Waterway docks.
Firefighters were first on the scene to deal with a simulated structure fire on one of the docks, as well as those injured in the explosion.
An on-water evacuation was also conducted involving Waterway employees using houseboats to move people to safety.
Twenty minutes into the first scenario, a second incident occurred nearby involving a vehicle that collided with hazardous materials. The vehicle’s three occupants had to be extricated from the vehicle and taken to a hazmat team for decontamination (Eagle Valley Rescue Society members involved in the extrication also had to be decontaminated after the injured were removed from the vehicle). After decontamination, the injured were taken to triage where they received additional care before being loaded into an ambulance.
While the injured were being removed from the vehicle, Waterway and Shuswap Search and Rescue set out a spill containment berm with direction from the Ministry of Environment.
While planning for the event took months, the exercise itself lasted about two hours and involved between 250 to 275 people. It was followed with lunch and debriefings.
Shuswap Emergency Program co-ordinator Cliff Doherty called the exercise a great success, and said he heard far more positive than negative comments during the debriefings.
Doherty said SEP does a full-scale exercise every four to five years, and participants at this year’s suggested the next one focus on an explosion. Asked if it might involve CP Rail, Doherty said SEP is having ongoing discussions with the company and that a full-scale exercise on the rails might be possible if organized carefully.
