Emergency crews gather at the Lacombe County administration's office (40403 Range Rd 274) to act as an emergency coordinating centre on Wednesday for a full-scale exercise involving 13 communities . (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Largest exercise in 15 years

Lacombe County remembers 2021 train derailment during full-scale emergency exercise

Oct 27, 2022 | 1:41 PM

Lacombe County thought of last year’s train derailment incident when conducting their full-scale emergency management exercise this Wednesday.

On Oct. 26, the Lacombe Regional Emergency Management Partnership (LREMP) tested local and regional emergency response plans and completed a trial run of an updated Regional Emergency Social Services plan. With 13 participating municipalities, partnering with Fortis Alberta, the exercise simulated a winter storm leading to power outages and water system failures, forcing communities to evacuate to centres in the City of Lacombe and the Town of Blackfalds.

READ: Lacombe Regional Emergency Management Partnership plans full-scale exercise October 26

As municipalities have their own emergency plans, Lacombe County’s role was to act as an emergency coordinating centre for municipalities to call if in need of extra help.

The simulation scenario changes every year, as a myriad of disasters can strike a community at any time. Drayton Bussiere, the County’s Director of Emergency Management, referenced the July 2021 trail derailment just south of Lacombe city, where crews had to manage a spill of liquid asphalt and evacuate a few residents from their homes.

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READ: Train carrying liquid asphalt derails between Blackfalds and Lacombe

Although Bussiere says the situation was not as dire as it could have been, he states it was partially due to the collaboration of multiple emergency crews and municipalities through proper planning and communication.

“We have very well written plans, or we think we have very well written plans, but the only way to know that for sure is to practice them and put them into place, which is what we’re doing today. The best way for us to learn if there’s a mistake in the plan is during exercises, like today’s, when there is no threat to life or threat to health and safety,” he said.

Blackfalds Mayor Jamie Hoover agreed with the statement, drawing from his 20 years of experience in the military where practices happened frequently. He said the emergency simulation was a good and rare opportunity for municipalities to do the same.

The town’s Community Centre (4810 Womacks Rd) acted as a reception centre for evacuees, with the role played by Wolf Creek Public Schools students. With emergency crews managing the situation together from the Fire Hall, Mayor Hoover says he believes the exercise went well for the town.

“It’s a huge learning curve, establishing 13 emergency operations centres,” he said about the operation.

“We have numerous people that don’t normally take part in this that are getting to learn new roles during an emergency and so far it looks calm and really organized.”

In a real situation, the mayor estimated that the town could support roughly 240 evacuees utilizing hotels and the Abbey Centre (4500 Womacks Rd) filled with cots for temporary shelter. Bussiere confirmed in an evacuation, they try to send residents to the nearest town, with shelter and payments under the responsibility of their municipality.

As the partnership has been active for 15 years, Bussiere confirms they conduct full-scale exercises every four years alongside annual discussions. However, he says this is the largest exercise in their history involving the communities of Lacombe County, the City of Lacombe, Town of Blackfalds, Town of Eckville, Town of Bentley, Village of Clive, Village of Alix, Summer Village of Gull Lake, Summer Village of Birchcliff, Summer Village of Sunbreaker Cove, Summer Village of Half Moon Bay, Summer Village of Jarvis Bay, and the Summer Village of Norglenwold.

The exercise ended with a mock news conference at the City of Lacombe. There was no actual disruption to water or power services during the simulation.