Prince George Search and Rescue (SAR), a volunteer-based organization, held a mock evacuation in the Hart Saturday afternoon to mimic what would happen in case of impending danger like fire or flood.
For training purposes there were about 40 SAR volunteers in attendance during the event from 10 different communities throughout the northern region, including Houston, Burns Lake, Fort St. John and Williams Lake. Also volunteering their time was about a dozen members of the Prince George Amateur Radio Club to help with communications, a key factor during any kind of emergency situation.
The idea for the mock evaluation came about as the local SAR group volunteered during the Williams Lake evacuation that took place last summer. They decided to create an electronic version of information gathering to improve the process of going door to door and keeping track of residents' responses to the situation. The paper trail used in the past was a little daunting.
The group uses iPads and a digital mapping system to better track residents as they chose to stay in their homes or leave the area, if there were people under 18 living in the residence and if there was anyone with mobility issues that needed to be transported using a vehicle other than their own.
If a person refused to leave their home and had people under the age of 18 living in the residence the SAR volunteers would have to report the situation to the police for them to investigate. If there was a person in the home that had mobility issues that would prevent them from safely leaving the home, the SAR members would contact the appropriate agencies to make sure transportation would be provided to those in need.
The local group went door-to-door Wednesday night to about 120 houses in the vicinity of the Eagles' Hall to see if people would be willing to participate in the mock evacuation Saturday and respond as they might during a real evacuation. Most everyone agreed to participate in the exercise.
Saturday afternoon teams of three went out into the neighbourhoods to knock on doors and conduct the interviews as if it were a real evacuation instead of just pretend.
Dave Read, from the local SAR group, along with Wes Smith from Nechako Valley SAR in Vanderhoof and Bill Imus from the SAR in Burns Lake were a team that knocked on Tim Camps' door.
Camps answered the questions and said that he would not leave his home at this time because according to the information letter he got on Wednesday the fire was coming from the west and was still quite far away from Prince George.
If the fire got any closer that would be different, he added.
"I would load my truck and put all my stuff in a safe and get ready to leave if a fire was close," Camps said.
That information was recorded in the program on the mobile device.
Next up was Kolter Hammond who answered all the questions and said he was willing to evacuate.
"Well, I wasn't going to stay to get burned down," Hammond said. "I would just grab a few things I needed, like my fishing gear and my cat and then I'd go pick up my fifth wheel and find somewhere to go."
The Prince George Search and Rescue group felt it important to be prepared for any kind of emergency, said Dave Merritt, project manager. To share information with other SAR groups in the province that often help each other during emergencies is key to having things run smoothly at a crucial time, he added.
