A major emergency exercise that took place on May 15 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street North was very successful, according to Weyburn's emergency planning coordinator, Fire Chief Denis Pilon.

The intent of the exercise was to test the ability of emergency services to communicate during a crisis, while raising the awareness of safety during a real-life emergency.

"There were delays and we had some miscommunication with SaskPower that have been identified and we are correcting," Pilon said.

The exercise was a simulation of a car accident involving major leak of a toxic chemical. It began with the Weyburn Police Service cornering off the accident scene. Firefighters went in with HazMat (Hazardous Materials) suits, set up a water screen and recovered a dummy out of a vehicle.

From there, they brought the dummy to the EMTs to load into an ambulance. Also during this time, students at the local schools learned what to do in case hazardous materials were released outside their school.

Equipment such as hoses and the water screen were set up, but were never utilized. The Fire Department will be training with the equipment in the near future, according to Pilon.

As fire chief, Pilon felt his firefighters did a great job. They had their Emergency Operations Centre running and they met the appropriate timelines, as did the majority of the agencies involved in the exercise.

Even though the ambulance was called to a real-life situation during the exercise and a back-up had to come in, EMS Charles Eddy felt the exercise went well for the limited role they played.

"We entered and were staged in the right area," Eddy said, who added that it was also their responsibility to check vitals before and after the firefighters go into the scene of the accident in the HazMat suits.

Inspector Russ Chartrand from the Weyburn Police Service felt the exercise went well from the police's perspective. He described their role in the exercise as the "quarterback," initiating the communication at the scene.

"This kind of exercise is hard to plan for because the communication is very complex, but it is something that we can go and learn from," Chartrand said.

Chartrand said their role in this scenario was to dispatch the fire department, control traffic and notify those in the area of the situation and make sure everyone is safe.

Pilon felt that the public was very patient with the exercise, as parts of Fifth Street and Fifth Avenue was blocked off to traffic for the majority of the afternoon for the program.

Others affected in the operations included the Sun Country Health Region, the Southeast Cornerstone School Division, the Holy Family Separate School Division, the R.M. of Weyburn and other non-government agencies.

These training procedures happen periodically for the City's emergency services. The last major emergency exercise in Weyburn took place in 2003, which simulated a school bus accident on 16th Street near the Fire Hall.