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CF to be Involved in Ontario's Ex Trillium Response

Globemaster firing alright, Globemaster STOPS - shared with the usual disclaimer.

Mechanical problems hamper mock disaster exercise
The News (Mississauga), 21 Nov 08
Article link

Mississauga's Pearson International Airport was supposed to be the launch point from where emergency personnel and resources would be deployed to a mock ice storm disaster today.

That plan wouldn't fly, though. Literally.

Originally, a C-17 Globemaster was to arrive at Pearson 11 a.m. as part of Trillium Response – a multi-jurisdictional disaster response effort developed by the Emergency Management Ontario, the Office of the Fire Marshal and the Canadian Forces. The C-17 – the military's newest aircraft which can carry a payload of 160,000 lbs. – was to be employed to transport personnel and resources to a mock emergency in Thunder Bay.

Due to mechanical problems, however, the plane was grounded. Instead, a C-130  was flown in at 2 p.m.

The mission was a response to a desperate plea for help from the Iain Angus the acting mayor of Thunder Bay, who had contacted the Provincial Emergency Operational Centre at about 8 p.m. last night. She was asking for help after a grain elevator had collapsed because of heavy snow and ice. The collapse injured 30 people and trapped another 80.

Still, members of Trillium Response refused to see the malfunctioning aircraft as a setback. Instead, they told the press that patrt of reacting to a disaster is dealing with the unpredictable.
.
"The only thing predictable in an emergency is the unpredictable," said Rick Bartolucci, Ontario's minister of community safety and correctional services. "The team had to strategize and come up with another alternative because the reality is this exercise has to go on because we're responding to an emergency."   

By 8:30 p.m., the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team (HUSAR) had been deployed. The team consists of 70 people from Toronto fire and police servives medical staff and specialists in structural engineering, hazardous materials, heavy rigging, search and logistics.


They flew out of Pearson to the disaster scene, albeit delayed by three hours until the replacement ride arrived.

"We will, at the end of the day, have learned from this exercise so that in the event of a real emergency here in the province of Ontario we will be equipped with not only the human not only the physical resources that are necessary but also having had the experience of reacting to a very serious situation," said Bartolucci.

The Thunder Bay mock disaster was one of several taking place simultaneously in other areas across northwestern Ontario, including in Kenora and Dryden.

The entire operation involved over 40 government and non-government organizations including 11 ministries of Ontario, four federal government departments and nine First Nations communities.

"This is going to be the largest exercise, peace-time joint exercise that has taken place in the province of Ontario," said Brigadier General Gary Stafford.

 
Latest fact sheet also attached below (.pdf)...

Canadian Forces Plane to Airlift Supplies
Mock Emergency Exercise In Full Swing In Thunder Bay

Government of Ontario news release, 21 Nov 08
News release link

    Rescue equipment, supplies, personnel, and search and rescue dogs will be airlifted via a Canadian Forces transport airplane from Toronto to Thunder Bay as part of the largest emergency response exercise held in recent Canadian history. Exercise Trillium Response, which began on November 17th, is a
multi-jurisdictional disaster response exercise that simulates the consequences of a massive ice storm in northwestern Ontario.

    Emergency Management Ontario and the Canadian Forces are jointly leading the exercise. It involves more than 1,500 participants from 40 different organizations (http://webx.newswire.ca/click?id=fe7ee6c5f024507) including provincial ministries, federal departments, municipalities, First Nations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

    Today's air movement from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Thunder Bay International Airport is testing the rapid response capability of the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) team following the staged collapse of local buildings with more than 100 people fictionally trapped inside.

    QUOTES

    "If disaster strikes, the Government of Ontario needs to know that we are ready to tackle the unexpected and most difficult of challenges to ensure Ontarians are kept safe," said Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci
(http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about_min/bio.html).

    QUICK FACTS

    The Toronto HUSAR is a multi-skilled task force made up of fire, police, emergency medical staff, physicians and other specialists who respond to large-scale emergencies that require unique search-and-rescue techniques and resources including highly trained dogs.

    LEARN MORE

    Read about exercise Trillium Response and emergency management
(http://www.emergencymanagementontario.ca/english/home.html) in Ontario.

    Read the timeline
    (http://webx.newswire.ca/click/?id=80a8875b792430a) of the mock emergency.


Shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.

Ice storm offers major mock disaster challenges
ALANA TOULIN, The Chronicle-Journal, 22 Nov 08
Article link

The mock ice storm that hit Thunder Bay this week as part of the province‘s emergency preparedness exercise continues to wreak some major – albeit staged – havoc on the region.

Some of the latest developments in Operation Trillium Response include a collapsed building rescue scenario staged on Thursday evening, and a field hospital set up to assist the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, which would more than likely be at full capacity during a real disaster.

Police spokesman Chris Adams said the fake building collapse scenario happened in a grain elevator by the waterfront where 110 people were working.

While Thunder Bay Police and Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue responded first along with Superior North EMS, they had to make a request for help from Ontario‘s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue unit (HUSAR) to search for victims trapped underneath layers of ice and rubble.

“It‘s very important to point out in a crisis like this, safety has to come first for victims and for the emergency responders,” he said at the sort of media briefing that would be staged if indeed these events were real.

He said about 80 people had been rescued and treated, and a HUSAR team was on the way from Toronto (via Canadian Forces airlift in the CC-177 Globemaster III) to help out the rest.

“We believe we have approximately 30 people still trapped. If you can imagine what we‘re dealing with at the scene – there‘s a lot of heavy concrete and steel – it‘s a real mess. It has to be taken apart piece by piece, essentially,” Adams said.

And if there was a real weather related disaster hitting the area as hard as the staged one has, hospital beds would be in short supply.

Enter the province‘s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT). Its 20-bed portable hospital arrived Thursday night and became operational Friday. Acting mayor Iain Angus said this would take some of the pressure off the TBRHSC, adding that shelters too are a challenge during a disaster.

“One of our key focuses has been on the evacuation of 20,000 people to central shelter facilities,” he said. “As you know, the entire city is without power, which means the vast majority of homes have no way to heat their facilities.”

He called the exercise “a real learning experience” that has helped the city not only to test its emergency plans, but also to refine them. City officials plan to hold a formal debriefing in the coming weeks to document their findings.

However, Angus said any changes made in procedure will likely involve just some “fine tuning” rather than complete overhauls.

“(Operation Trillium Response) has given me a much better understanding of how prepared we are as a municipality to respond to the weather,” he said.

Emergency Management Ontario deputy chief Mike Morton is also pleased with way the exercise has unfolded, stating that the province and all of its partners has made “considerable progress” in its ability to respond to crises since the 1998 ice storm.

“We have been able to overcome (real-life) challenges like weather and show that all levels of government can work in any area of the province and provide high levels of service to the citizens.”
Operation Trillium Response continues today.
 
Just FYI, I just had a couple of young, polite 3 RCR troops stop by my place to see if we were OK - I offered them some food and, sadly, they couldn't stop or take something with them.  There was what looks like a platoon walking the streets in the neighbourhood in pairs, checking on each house.

The system seems to be working @ my end - well done, folks!
 
milnews.ca said:
There was what looks like a platoon walking the streets in the neighbourhood in pairs, checking on each house.
Yup, I just saw what amounted to a section crossing James St near Westgate High School obviously doing the same thing. My wife and I were just down at the CLE doing a little local shopping and that place seems to quite the hub of activity (this is the command centre of the operation). Quite a number of military vehicles buzzing around (much to the delight of my 3yo). One was proudly flying the RCR colours. Great job to all  :salute:
 
Shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.

Highway pileup victims aided in mock disaster
ALANA TOULIN, The Chronicle-Journal, 23 Nov 08
Article link

With a snowy Shuniah sandpit standing in for Highway 11, emergency crews worked feverishly Saturday morning to save about 30 crash victims after a messy pileup involving a school bus and several cars.

But despite the realism shown – the blood-streaked injured who writhed in pain come to mind – it was all just par for the course on the last day of Trillium Response, the large-scale exercise devised to test the province‘s ability to deal with an emergency.

Fortunately the tragedy that left two dead and another 15 critically injured was just a simulation, but when a disaster like the “ice storm” that hit Thunder Bay this week strikes, the real-life consequences can be just as dire.

In the middle of the chaos, Superior North EMS manager of quality assurance and training Wayne Gates said the priority was to assess the most critical patients and get them to hospital first. Twelve of their paramedics were on scene along with personnel from the Shuniah Fire Department and St. John Ambulance.

“As you can see, (the collision) was very high impact,” he said. “Lots of people were trapped and required extrication from the fire department.”

For Gates, it was important to participate in an exercise like this one so staff is better prepared for large-scale crises that can be “challenging and overwhelming.”

“Unfortunately, in the real world these types of incidents do happen,” he said. “It‘s good training for our paramedics to go through these events.”

Once the victims (actually Confederation College paramedic students and members of the military) had been assessed at the crash scene, they were transported to the Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT)‘s 56-bed portable hospital set up beside Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

In the case of a real emergency, the portable hospital would help take some of the pressure off the TBRHSC, which would undoubtedly find itself with a shortage of beds. With 75 staff on site Saturday and a mobile intensive care unit, the facility was able to provide a very high level of care to patients during the mock disaster, said EMAT medical director Bruce Sawadsky, adding that in 24 hours they saw about 150 patients.

Best of all, once the portable hospital arrives in a community, it takes just about four to six hours to set up.

To Lt.-Cmdr. Lorne Carruth, taking part in Trillium Response was an ideal way for the Canadian Forces to hone their training procedures.

“(The exercise) lets me capture all the lessons learned from the sailors, and take that back to my HQ and improve it,” he said earlier in the day along the lakefront where military personnel conducted port security exercises and water rescues.

“The continuous improvement cycle is exactly what these things are all about.”

As part of their scenario, different military units had to work together to rescue divers from the frigid waters of Lake Superior.

“These are very dangerous situations for the divers. They‘re at the margins of their capability limit with the temperature of the water,” said Carruth.

Naturally, an endeavour like this one came with its own set of obstacles, from weather, to pacing, to co-ordination of the team.

Carruth said there were about 50 Naval Reserve members comprising the port security aspect and another 17 divers.

“The 67 have come together into one command organization. From a training standpoint, the challenge is that a lot of these sailors are meeting each other for the first time,” he said.

“Within one night, we have to try to make them a team on the water. That‘s what it‘s all about, and that‘s why we standardize the training.”

 
The landing in T-Bay was a blast.

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milnews.ca said:
Just FYI, I just had a couple of young, polite 3 RCR troops stop by my place to see if we were OK - I offered them some food and, sadly, they couldn't stop or take something with them.  There was what looks like a platoon walking the streets in the neighbourhood in pairs, checking on each house.

The system seems to be working @ my end - well done, folks!
They would've been 1 RCR.  And I would've said one of them might have been me, but you said "young". ;)
 
DirtyDog said:
They would've been 1 RCR.  And I would've said one of them might have been me, but you said "young". ;)

Gotta get those $10 glasses from the drugstore checked, then - thanks.

And here's the wrap-up (photo below) with the usual disclaimer...

Organizers confident after emergency exercises
By PETER BURKOWSKI, Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal, 24 Nov 08
Article link

Ontario is prepared for the worst, say Canadian Forces officials.

Large-scale disaster simulation exercise Operation Trillium Response wrapped up on Sunday, after a week of co-ordinated response by more than 1,500 Ontario emergency services workers to a mock ice storm ravaging the region.

Medical, military, fire, police and other emergency services personnel all came together to deal with the proposed disaster in as realistic a fashion as possible.
In spite of minor setbacks like real weather conditions slowing some vehicle movements and hampering the construction of temporary buildings, 2nd Lt. Andrew Wilson said that every group participating in the operation did its job well – and will be able to do so if and when a real disaster strikes.

“It was extremely successful,” said Wilson.

Wilson was one of the troops that came to the area from Petawawa for the exercise.

He said that the City of Thunder Bay‘s assistance and resources were instrumental to the operation‘s success.

“We couldn‘t have done this without the city‘s help,” said Wilson.

Participants in the exercise also came from 25 Northwestern Ontario municipalities from throughout the region, three First Nations communities, and Manitoba.
Operation Trillium Response was developed by Emergency Management Ontario and the Canadian Forces.

Photo credit:  Brent Linton, Chronicle-Journal
Members of the Canadian Forces pack up at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds Sunday after the weeklong Operation Trillium Response.
149219.jpg
 
WOW!  The Globemasters have actual seats and not orange cargo nets?  It's probably as noisy in there as it is in the Hercs, but at least it LOOKS a bit more comfortable.
 
DirtyDog said:
They would've been 1 RCR.  And I would've said one of them might have been me, but you said "young". ;)

On the 22nd, it could have been soldiers from 4RCR.
 
22nd was...Saturday? My platoon relieved the 1RCR from conducting the "Wellness Inspections" in Area Bravo, so depending on where you lived, it might have been Reservists.

A lot of down time, to say the least.
 
As one who was in the real thing, if it had been a major ice storm, there wouldn't have been much down time. It is not too much to say that in the 1998 storm here in Eastern Ontario, the rapid and efficient response by the CF saved lives. They certainly provided a huge boost to the morale of us suddenly thrust back into the 19th century.
 
I'm not debating the problems associated with "the real thing."

Simply referring to the exercise as a whole.

The Ex was a success, as acknowledged by most, but the fact remains that it was a "wider picture" effort, not designed to provide substantial training opportunities or benefit to the soldiers. My views, anyways.
 
Baloo said:
22nd was...Saturday? My platoon relieved the 1RCR from conducting the "Wellness Inspections" in Area Bravo, so depending on where you lived, it might have been Reservists.

They weren't reservists - when I asked after a 4 RCR person, they said, "no, that's the Reserve unit."  To which I replied, "Not that there's anything wrong with that, right?"  They laughed...
 
Xcalibar said:
WOW!  The Globemasters have actual seats and not orange cargo nets?  It's probably as noisy in there as it is in the Hercs, but at least it LOOKS a bit more comfortable.

They got seats for that short hop?  We had the little jump seats for a TransPac, but it was actually pretty good because you get up, walk around, and lay down.
 
Xcalibar said:
WOW!  The Globemasters have actual seats and not orange cargo nets?  It's probably as noisy in there as it is in the Hercs, but at least it LOOKS a bit more comfortable.
The seats in the middle are on some type of modular system.  The seats along the sides fold down.  Both are quite comfortable and the noise level is tolerable (although I wish I had ear defenders as I couldn't make out all the words of the movie I was watching through my earbuds).

Comfortable ride too.  Very smooth... except for the short landing in T-Bay.  Felt like we dropped out of the sky and slammed into the tarmac, stopping instantly.

I was joking they would have steak and lobster in the air force box lunches they passed out to us on the way back.  I wasn't far from the truth!  Beat the hell out of the ones here in Pet anyway.
 
Found a video of the takeoff from TB.  No landing vid though.

*There is swearing at the end of the video*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAIThTYDz8
 
We were in the terminal waiting to board our flight to Pearson when that beast took off.  We were like "I think I can, I think I can...."  Wishing it to fly cause it looked like it was going so slow, then WHAM!!  :o up she went.  Awesome to see, must of been crazy for the boys inside. 
 
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