Town of Coaldale runs emergency disaster training simulation

Coaldale is making the most of National Emergency Preparedness Week, with fire, EMS and town staff getting together for an emergency simulation.

The Town of Coaldale is making the most of National Emergency Preparedness Week.

Town staff spent much of the day, Tuesday, reacting to and containing a fire—though the blaze wasn’t real.

It was part of a simulated disaster exercise they try to do every two years.

“We’re in what’s called the functional exercise. It’s to test our municipal emergency program for the Town of Coaldale,” said Clayton Rutberg, Coaldale’s director of protective services.

“It allows us to respond to a specific hazard that we might have here in town.”

The disaster scenario was a truck spilling dangerous chemicals along Highway 3, which then caused a fire.

With Coaldale being on a major trucking route, it is something emergency responders might have to deal with.

Previous scenarios include train derailments and wildfires.

“It tests our incident management team and our ability to develop it into an action plan to basically carry out our response to ensure community safety during an emergency or a large-scale disaster,” Rutberg said.

Teams had to work to contain the blaze as well as evacuate residents.

They had to think of everything from rehousing impacted residents to rescuing pets.

Town staff also took part in a mock press conference addressing the fake fire.

“It’s extremely important that we have an emergency plan in place, and we’re very fortunate in the town of Coaldale to have a dedicated staff with the Coaldale and District Emergency Services,” said Jack Van Rijn, Coaldale’s mayor.

While emergency crews get plenty of training on dealing with disasters, regular town staff typically don’t.

Having simulations like these that involve town staff and council are crucial to ensure everyone is prepared in the event of a disaster.

“It’s vital for members of council, including myself as mayor, that we participate because each time we go through one of these, it’s a learning curve, and it’s important that we keep up with what needs to be done,” Van Rijn said.