Jasper is about to be engulfed in one of the areas largest fires on record. Emergency service providers already have their hands full dealing with a train full of virus carrying passengers. How does the town cope with the convergence of two potential disasters?

This was precisely the question that was asked during a series of role-playing training exercises that were carried out by Jasper’s various emergency responder groups on June 8. Representatives from Parks Canada, ATCO electric, the Jasper Fire department, the Town of Jasper, EMS services, and a host of other protective services providers and relevant parties around town, got together in the rooms in the fire hall and environmental services building to act out how they would respond to a major disaster in Jasper.

“It’s an opportunity for different agencies in town to figure out how they fit into parts of disaster management,” said Jasper Fire Chief Greg Van Tighem. He explained the role-playing exercise would allow the groups to test out the Incident Command System (ICS), which more and more organizations in Jasper are using. Developed in California in the 1970s in response to wildfires, ICS is based upon a flexible, scalable response organization providing a common framework for groups that do not normally work together. It essentially allows groups to speak the same language during their disaster planning and response.

Van Tighem said a variety of groups in Jasper are now using the ICS emergency organization system: the Town of Jasper, Jasper National Park and Parks Canada, Jasper’s EMS responders, the hospital, RCMP, emergency dispatch, and then third party, private organizations such as Kinder Morgan, CN Rail and ATCO.

The training operations conducted on June 8 essentially operates like a giant game. There is a master game controller who calls out events and players are expected to act out how they would perform in real life. 

In the training that took place, there were three disaster scenarios. In the first, which was a reenactment of a real-life event that occurred in Jasper several years ago, the responders had to handle a large, ruptured gas tank in town. In the second scenario, a speeding passenger train rushing towards town carrying passengers with Norwalk virus has to be contained. During this disaster, the third, largest scenario, started: a fire that quickly turns into one of the largest fires the area has even seen, starts near Caledonia Lake and quickly spreads to Jasper while responders are still trying to deal with the infected train riders. 

During all the role-playing (which was preceded by a day of classroom training on June 7), there are people acting as judges, asking the role-players how they are responding to events: when did they start to deploy the sprinkler system around town to keep back the flames? How many houses have they informed about the evacuation order? How much water has been used to keep the flames at bay? How is this affecting the towns drinking water supply?

“It’s very intense, it’s not hard at all to get caught up in it. You get people with radios running around, talking to responders,” said Van Tighem. “It’s extremely serious.”

While the training exercise is an annual event, it has added relevance this year due to the unusually dry winter which has added to the longer term trend of greater dryness around Jasper. Van Tighem said that despite the recent month of wet weather, the soil beneath the surface layer of the ground is still unusually dry. That could mean that Jasper is going to experience a serious fire sometime soon.

Van Tighem said in the fake disaster, 12 homes in Jasper along Cabin Creek Drive were destroyed by fire. He said those houses went up in flames primarily due to their cedar roofs, which caught fire when embers from flames in the distance got caught in the wind, launched into the air and touched down on top of the homes.

 “Any fire of this size would overwhelm our present capabilities,” said Van Tighem. “Any house that we lose is not a good thing,”

He explained that the huge fire is a realistic scenario for Jasper. The fake fire was based on data that was collected from real world ground conditions around the town. While the fire was slowed by fire breaks and forest thinning efforts, it could still do great damage to the town, said Van Tighem.

Despite the rescue planing, Van Tighem said that any rescue response can’t simply do everything to make sure that people are safe and sound. There is an onus on citizens to prepare themselves for emergencies and to know how to properly conduct themselves.

Van Tighem advises the public to prepare a 72-hour kit with enough necessities in it to sustain the family for the worst. The kit should contain the essentials: water, canned foods, first aid along with any medicines that might be necessary for your families survival.