While witnesses may feel they’re caught up in a real emergency underway at The University of Western Ontario on the morning of Monday, May 3, what they will be seeing is an emergency exercise.
The exercise, Harmony 5, is designed to allow Western emergency teams to strengthen the university’s ability to respond in a real emergency.
The exercise gets underway at 9 a.m., and activities will be centred in the Chemistry Building and in the area between the Natural Sciences Building and the Biological & Geological Sciences Building. All roads will remain open.
The exercise will include testing of some communication tools that could include mass emails, an emergency version of the Western home page and emergency-related messaging on the main telephone switchboard.
Campus responders involved in the exercise include:
• Campus Community Police Service
• Student Emergency Response Team (SERT)
• Fire Safety and Emergency Management
• HazMat Team
• Emergency Response Team
• Emergency Operations Control Group
“It can be a bit shocking for people on campus to see people in HazMat suits entering and exiting buildings, or perhaps to see students who appear injured,” says Elgin Austen, Director of Campus Community Police Service.
“We want to get the message out in advance, so members of the community know that if they spot that kind of activity on Monday, they can rest assured that this is just an exercise that builds our emergency preparedness and our safe campus community.”
The exercise will also include testing of some communication tools that could include mass e-mails, an emergency version of the Western home page and emergency related messaging on the main telephone switchboard.