While plane crashes and tanker truck spills of toxic materials are rarely a good thing, a recent mock version of this very situation in Powell River produced something invaluable: world-class cooperation.

The large-scale exercise, which took place last week in Powell River, involved dozens of local agencies in the area including the Powell River Regional District, Fire Rescue, RCMP, BC Ambulance Service, Search and Rescue, emergency support services and Catalyst Paper, the owner of the mock tanker. The representatives from each of the agencies listed shared information and made joint decisions by connecting the region’s emergency operations centre (EOC) – housed in the PR Regional District’s boardroom – and the PRGH EOC, housed in the hospital’s Administration area.

“The large, complex scale of this event made it challenging for everyone involved,” says Coastal’s Health Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Phillips who helped coordinate VCH’s involvement for the day-long exercise. “But without these types of activities, we wouldn’t get the practice integrating with each other that is so vital to our success in a real disaster.”

Life-like scenarios include hospitalization and treatment

Additionally, volunteers from the community took part as “injured victims”, being brought to Powell River General Hospital’s Emergency for treatment, with some even being “operated on” to help stabilize their traumatic injuries.

VCH staff and physicians in Powell River were instrumental to helping treat the mock injuries as they would be in a real emergency. Planning for the mock exercise began six months ago, with numerous discussions taking place since then about how to stage the complex event.

“From the perspective of our local health care response, the success of last week’s event is a tribute to the many VCH staff and physicians who took part,” says Powell River Director Pat Townsley. “When or if this type of situation occurs for real, we’ll be much better prepared to deal with it.”