IQALUIT - Federal, territorial and municipal agencies tested their abilities to cope with disaster during a simulated tank farm explosion in Iqaluit Aug. 24.

Firefighter/emergency medical responder Sharon MacDonald prepares to transport a victim of Iqaluit's simulated tank farm disaster on Aug. 24. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

The mock explosion tested the emergency preparedness plans of the agencies as part of Operation Nanook, according to Nunavut's director of protection services Ed Zebedee.

Zebedee said a tank farm explosion was chosen for the disaster simulation because tank farms are located in each community in Nunavut. He also said the farms have been identified as a top risk in terms of what could happen should a catastrophe occur.

"We receive our fuel on sealift and our fuel is stored in tanks for the entire year," he said. "When we go into communities and do their emergency plans, we do an all-hazard risk assessment. In every community, the tank farm is in the top three as one of the hazards."

The simulation began at about 11 a.m. when Rangers Richard Kaviuk, Jackie Uttaq, Norbert Oyukuluk and Steve Aqqaq fired shotguns into the air to initiate the exercise.

Across from the tank farm, about 20 soldiers who had been dressed with fake injuries lay on the ground and screamed for help. Firefighter/emergency medical responders arrived on the scene and placed triage tags on each victim indicating their level of injury.

"You need to be able to determine who is most likely to survive," said Lt.-Cmdr. Albert Wong. "It's very complex terrain to search."

Emergency personnel then transported the injured to waiting ambulances, which took them to the Qikiqtani General Hospital.

"We wanted to do a mass casualty incident for the hospital; they wanted to test their ability to respond to a bunch of casualties," Zebedee said.

Zebedee said the GN's goal was to test the territorial, municipal and hospital's emergency response plans.

"We really met our three objectives which was to see if the territorial planning for loss of a tank farm was good enough, to be able to test the city's emergency plan and their ability to respond to a major incident, and for the hospital to be able to respond," he said.

Zebedee said the exercise highlighted some improvements that need to be made to the preparedness plans, including the system used to transport victims of a disaster situation.

"We learned that we needed a better transport system for moving patients from the site into the hospital," he said. "If there were a lot of casualties from something, we have to put a better transport system in place."

Zebedee said one of the two ambulances being used had to respond to a medevac call partway through the exercise.

Another issue was communications, Zebedee said. The increase in cell phone use in Iqaluit during Operation Nanook overwhelmed the cell phone system and slowed down communications.

"We actually overwhelmed the cell system in Iqaluit because everybody had a cell phone. It just overwhelmed the whole system," he said. "It didn’t crash the system, but it slowed it down, so that’s something that has been identified." Zebedee said he is pleased with the exercise and said his department's goals were met.

"Addressing the environmental impact and long-term health impact and then getting fuel here so the community could return to normal as soon as possible, that was what we wanted to get out of it and we did get that," he said.