Boulder Office of Emergency Management to participate in regional
wildfire exercise
Boulder County, Colo. - On
Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21, a full-scale training exercise will be held
in partnership with Boulder County agencies, the City of Boulder, Boulder
Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Boulder Incident Management Team.
The training exercise will involve more than 25 agencies, more than 300
participants, and will exercise all elements of a wildland fire incident from the
initial response to mass care management.
Residents
may see and hear personnel and equipment associated with this training exercise,
which will include helicopter flights, in and around the following locations:
Boulder Reservoir
Potential
traffic of key resources to and from the incident area
2801 Jay Road
Simulation
evacuation drill site where volunteers will be evacuated to and assessed
by the
Access and Functional Needs team
Between Mine Lane Road and Carriage Hills, near BMFD
Fire Station 1
Structure
defense and fire suppression operations
Wonderland Lake and Dakota Ridge Subdivision
Helicopter bucket
drops to simulate air operations and practice pilot accuracy
Structure
assessments and wildfire defense plan practice
Boulder County Fairground, Longmont
Simulated Animal
Control evacuations of horses/large animals
The
exercise is testing the ability of our first response system to handle a
rapidly escalating incident through effective incident management, quick
resource mobilization, and holding the incident through a transition process of
passing the complexity onto our local specialized Boulder Incident Management
Team. The Boulder OEM has been working with the North Central Region All–Hazards
Region for the past 18 months preparing the training exercise, which is
sponsored by the Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency
Management (DHSEM) through the State Homeland Security Grant Program. Three
other counties are involved to create a regional simulated incident and the
State Emergency Operations Center and DHSEM staff are involved in the exercise
to test the State’s ability to manage resource scarcity and supporting multiple
counties affected by a regional problem.
In
the training exercise scenario, a fictitious wildland fire starts in Boulder
Mountain Fire Protection District on a hot, dry, windy summer day. The fire
advances quickly and will cause immediate evacuation of residents and threaten
homes. The City of Boulder will be involved in the scenario when spot fires
cause a threat to the Dakota Ridge and Wonderland Lake neighborhoods.
This
is a good reminder that residents should also make sure they are prepared for any
potential disaster by having their own preparedness plan. Disaster response is a
partnership between first responders, local, state and federal governments,
disaster-relief organizations, and the public. Having a pre-developed emergency
plan, putting together an emergency kit, and understanding how to stay informed
is essential to a resilient community.
For
more information about preparing for a disaster, please visit: www.BoulderOEM.com/disaster-preparedness.
For more information
about the full-scale exercise prior to May 20, contact the Office of Emergency Management at
303-441-3390.
**Members of the media: If you need information about the exercise during the exercise, please call 303-441-1500**
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