KEN BL O CK
As chief of Edmonton Fire and Rescue Service, Block headed the team responsible for the City of Edmonton’s response to the Fort McMurray wildfire.
On the call for help: “The province called on May 4, asking how many fire department resources could be freed up. The major consideration is that we have a city of 900,000 here to protect and we can’t put Edmontonians at risk. But all the staff that went up there were on days off. We sent two pumpers, big units, and two tankers and five smaller support vehicles. When they lost their water supply, those tankers were invaluable.”
On the Expo reception centre: “One thousand City of Edmonton employees spent time supporting the reception centre. The scale of the operation was something to behold and the Expo Centre was a really well-suited facility to this type of need. What struck me was the plight of the evacuees — the strain, the stress of being evacuated from their city. They were so appreciative of what the City of Edmonton was providing. Through our fire rescue volunteers, and employees with medical training and background, City of Edmonton employees have a lot of diverse skills and in a situation like this are invaluable.”
On lessons learned: “Planning, planning, planning. We call it business continuity planning, and that is preparing for the worst, and you can’t do enough of it. The good news is the system worked really well. But to run the Emergency Operations Centre effectively — that is 20 people engaged 24-7 — for an event of this duration, you play people out. They need time off as well.
“One of the lessons we learned is to focus on the capacity of people who are trained in many of the skills needed, to make sure that we have the 150 people trained that we needed for a job the size of Fort McMurray. We had maybe 60. I can tell you that we are now sitting at 120 with a plan in place to exceed that.”
What struck me was the plight of the evacuees — the strain, the stress of being evacuated from their city. They were so appreciative of what the City of Edmonton was providing.