Liidlii Kue/Fort Simpson - Agencies and departments in Fort Simpson have been given a series of recommendations on how to improve their responses to emergency situations.

The recommendations are part of the follow up to the live emergency response exercise that was held in the village on Sept. 13.

Two members of the Fort Simpson volunteer fire department act out the steps of extinguishing a fire on the bus that played the part of a crashed airplane during the live emergency response exercise held in Fort Simpson in September. - NNSL file photo

The mock disaster tested the emergency preparedness plans of a variety of organizations including the airport, the village, the volunteer fire department, Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) and the health centre. The Department of Transportation and the GNWT's Emergency Measures Organization co-ordinated the event.

"There's always ways to improve," said Russ Head, the senior security and protective services officer for the airport division of the GNWT's Department of Transportation.

Head met with representatives of the organizations involved in the exercise in Fort Simpson on Dec. 7. The exercise doesn't come with a pass or fail grade but provides practical training for all the agencies involved, Head said.

Head focused on issues that affect the inter-agency response to the emergency.

"They have to improve the communication," he said.

The exercise was developed to test communication between the agencies. Some of the agencies had difficulty communicating with each other, especially the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that hadn't been included in the exercise before, Head said.

Communication is a problem area identified in many communities but every exercise is different, said Head.

Some of the problems in the village's response were expected, Head said. This was the first time in at least five years that a live exercise was held in Fort Simpson. There were many new people that hadn't been through the experience before, he said.

The scenario involved the mid-air collision of two aircraft. One aircraft with 17 passengers crashed beside one of the airport's runways. The second aircraft with three passengers crashed at a second site along the highway and sparked a forest fire that moved towards the village and cut off road access.

All aspects of the scenario are based on incidents that could happen.

"There's a good possibility of it happening," said Head.

If the emergency had taken place in real life the village's response would have been sufficient, Head said.

One change that will be made as a result of the exercise is a standardization of the maps that are used by the departments.

"That's critical here," said Head.

During the event it was discovered that the agencies use different maps of the village. As a result there was confusion during the exercise about the location of the second crash site.

MACA and the Department of Transportation will work together to modify the existing map used by the airport. The map has a grid over the area surrounding the airport making it easy to pinpoint locations. The grid will be extended to cover the entire municipal boundary and the maps will be distributed around the village.

Overall, Head said he was pleased with the response during the exercise. The recommendations are made to improve the overall response and not to criticize, he said.

"We've never gone into any community and said 'everything's wonderful see you in three years,'" said Kevin Rowe, community emergency management co-ordinator with MACA.