SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Heavy smoke on the sixth floor of the Bellanca Building activated its alarm system, last Wednesday evening. Arctic Alarm notified the Yellowknife Fire Division that the alarms were ringing at the building and the duty crew sprung into action during an elaborate safety drill.
Municipal enforcement officers helped keep the public away from an elaborate Yellowknife Fire Division exercise at The Bellanca Building last Wednesday evening. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo
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Municipal enforcement officers kept the public and the 50 Street traffic at bay as an ambulance and fire truck arrived at the scene around 6:30 p.m.
The first two firefighters inside the building realized when they were hit by the heavy smoke upstairs that it was no typical false alarm. All extra staff at the division was called in by the dispatch centre.
What the firefighters and some members of the general public did not know that night, was the smoke was created by a chief officer using a smoke generator machine, one of the "victims" was a mannequin placed in the building earlier in the day, and the radio call of "firefighters down" was all a part of an intricately-choreographed emergency drill.
"It was a great training opportunity for our department because we didn't let anybody know so that they would treat it right as a real call," said Yellowknife Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad, who arranged the drill at the vacant, 10-storey Bellanca Building with the division's deputy chiefs. "It was absolutely wonderful that we were able to use this building to train because then you've got the firefighters actually going up the stairwells and opening the doors and they're met with smoke and all this sort of stuff, Hernblad said, noting most of the division's training is done in old homes or at its training centre by the airport. "It's not everyday that we get to train in a big tall building such as the Bellanca Building. To actually get training in a high tall building like that and follow our high-rise procedures doesn't happen everyday."
Director of public safety Dennis Marchiori applauded the exercise, which he said gave the fire department a better gauge of the things that work well and the things it could improve upon in the event of a large high-rise fire, such as the 2010 Fraser Tower blaze.
"The Fraser Tower was an interesting one because the fire was actually on the rooftop. We learned things from that actual fire, but doing training inside large buildings will give us a leg up," Marchiori said. "This way, next time we have an issue with a large building, that duty crew is going to say 'we know that these are the things we're probably going to face,' and when it's finally put into use, you really remember it. So that's what we wanted to do with the firefighters."
The Bellanca Building has been made available to the firefighters for ongoing training exercises by the building's owner, Bellanca Developments Ltd.
It was left vacant last spring when the previous tenant -- Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada--moved into the new Gallery Building on Franklin Avenue.
