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By Curtis Galbraith

Practice time for emergency personnel

Feb 28, 2018 | 1:43 PM

It has been practice-time for emergency services people from around the Peace this week.

The Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership has organized an exercise that includes people from dozens of agencies and emergency services.

They have been taking part in an exercise that imagines a huge wildfire threatening Grande Prairie or some other nearby community.

County of Grande Prairie Fire Chief Trevor Grant says the exercise includes simulated evacuations.

“That started within the Forest Protection Area, spread into the County of Grande Prairie, M.D. of Greenview and is going to be moving up to impact the City of Grande Prairie as well.”

Simulated evacuations have also been done for parts of the County, Hythe, Beaverlodge, Grovedale, and other parts of the M.D. of Greenview.

Grant adds the practice includes where people would go and what road they would use.

“That is part of the planning within the simulation. There are some (roads) that are going to be impacted as far as closures, some are going to be used as evacuation routes.”

Grant says this simulation will be a big help if something really does happen.

“(It’s) definitely beneficial for all the organizations and folks to get together to build a rapport, but also to exercise the    plans and the procedures that we currently have in place, to make sure that they will operate smoothly in the event of a large-scale event.” 

Once the exercise wraps up, participants will get together to talk about what went well and what they would do differently. 

by Curtis Galbraith