With men dressed in fluorescent protective suits walking around the former Support Services Building and the London Fire Department flooding the area, The University of Western Ontario looked like an action set on Wednesday.
The University of Western Ontario tested its emergency response capabilities with a training exercise Wednesday morning. The scenario involved a tornado in London, causing damage to buildings on campus, including a spill in the Chemistry Building. Above, HazMat team member and Robarts Research Institute staff member Craig Jones gets decontaminated by London fire fighter James Bell as part of the exercise.
Although there were some actors on scene, Western was taking a serious look at how well it responds in the event of an emergency, converting the campus into a training ground for emergency response services, including the HazMat and Confined Space Team and London Fire Services.
The timing couldn’t have been more opportune.
The emergency training exercise comes in the midst of Western’s pandemic planning for an outbreak of the A/H1N1 virus. Although the emergency scenario is different, Elgin Austen, director of Campus Community Police Service (CCPS), says the plan is the same.
“We try to be as proactive as we can to avoid emergencies. There are a few things you can’t control. No matter what the emergency is we need to be prepared,” he says.
In the imagined scenario, a severe storm knocked out hydro across the city. Among the many emergencies on campus was a chemical spill from a storage shelf collapsing in the so-called chemistry building (former Support Services Building).
After a meticulous procedure to get suited up, the HazMat team, called to the scene in case of an emergency involving hazardous material, entered the building to assess the situation, take a sample of the chemicals and analyze it, as well as determine a strategy for resolving the problem.
Tony Hammoud, Facilities Safety Coordinator and leader of the HazMat team, says the team, dressed in fluorescent protective suits and carrying oxygen tanks, only has 30 minutes to complete its task before running out of air. Once they left the building, the team had to be decontaminated and firefighters hosed down and scrubbed the suits to remove any chemicals.
The exercise provides the university HazMat team and the London HazMat team an opportunity to work together, as well as the London Fire Department, as they would during a real-life event.
“This is another example of how well our two teams can work together on bigger emergencies on campus to mitigate any kind of biological, nuclear, or chemical emergency here on campus,” says Hammoud.
About 50 people were involved in the exercise, including faculty, staff and students. In the past, the university has also conducted similar training exercises with London Police Service.
In addition to the mock chemical spill, campus emergency services were also dealing with: student injuries at Delaware Hall residence; a two-car rollover accident on Perth Drive; a partial evacuation of University College after part of the roof was damaged; and an emergency situation at Huron University College; all of which occurred during a storm with high winds, rain, damaging hail and a tornado touchdown.
Although it appeared to be an exercise in Murphy’s Law, Austen says it is important to be prepared.
“The more you practice it and refine the details, the better the outcome is going to be.”
Wednesday’s exercise, titled Harmony 4, was the fourth in a series of emergency training practices conducted at the university. As part of the exercise, emergency responders also tested a number of communications tools that Western would use in case of a real-life, real-time emergency. Other on-campus groups assisting with the exercise include Student Emergency Response Team, Fire Safety and Emergency Management, Emergency Response Team, and the Emergency Operations Control Group.
Physical Plant employee and HazMat team member Mike Williams gets suited-up with the help of Campus Community Police Service Manager Michael Mics.