Drill in adaptability at East Three
National Fire Prevention Week celebrated in different manner
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 16, 2014
INUVIK
When you live in the Arctic, you have to be adaptable, and that includes fire drills.
East Three school principal Deb Maguire, left, with Grade 6 students Mataya Gillis and Kiersten Rogers, celebrated National Fire Prevention Week with Inuvik Fire Chief Jim Sawkins following a drill at the school Oct. 10. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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Inuvik Fire Chief Jim Sawkins helped wrap up National Fire Prevention Week on Oct. 10 with a very different type of fire drill at East Three school.
Instead of escaping outside, the students from both the secondary and elementary wings of East Three fled into the gymnasium.
That plan was hatched with a collaboration between Sawkins and principal Deb Maguire, with the mutual agreement that it isn't a good idea to send the children out into the early winter weather.
"This isn't being done anywhere else," Sawkins told the students as the drill was coming to an end.
"You have to be adaptable," Sawkins said afterwards. "We likely wouldn't be sending kids out into -38 C weather during the winter if we didn't have to."
"It doesn't really seem the way to do it," Maguire chipped in, "but it works. We didn't think it was a good idea to send the children out in this weather."
The drill, which was communicated to the students, was a trial run for the new protocol.
Maguire said the gym was selected both for space reasons and because it is constructed of fire-proof materials that would provide the students and staff with at least temporary protection in the event of a fire.
That would also give the fire department a chance to determine the nature of the emergency, which could potentially be handled with the students needing to be evacuated depending on the severity of the incident.
The gym also has emergency exits leading to the back of the school, where the students would exit if it became necessary.
From there, they would head for the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex as the emergency shelter.
Both Maguire and Sawkins agreed it is within reasonable walking distance unless the weather is extremely bad.
Sawkins said if a total evacuation is necessary in severely cold weather, he would likely call in buses from Northwind Industries to transport the students to the recreation complex or to be used as a temporary shelter.
It appeared the students were both appreciative and a little bewildered about the experiment.
Mataya Gillis, a Grade 6 student, said she is happy about not having to go outside.
Kiersten Rogers, another Grade 6 student, said some classmates were saying "it wasn't a real drill" without leaving the school.
Sawkins and Maguire smiled at that, and also discussed some retrofits to the school that would make the gymnasium a safer location to use as a staging area.
Some of the doors will be fitted with steel frames to offer better protection, and Sawkins isn't entirely happy with the emergency exit on the secondary school side. He and deputy chief Gordon Simms were making notes on how to improve the deficiencies after the drill.
The two men were kept busy throughout the week with fire prevention activities.
Sawkins was stressing the need to check smoke alarms to see if they worked throughout the week, and had the department checking as many as was feasible.
