Emergency Preparedness Week recognized locally

Emergency Preparedness (EP) week is recognized nationally during the first full week in May each year. This year’s local activities kicked off on May 2, 2022, with a fire simulation exercise on a 150-foot crude tank at Imperial’s tank farm on Scott Road. Coordinated response efforts included a team of more than 60 emergency responders, with 13 fire apparatuses, 2 Sarnia Police cruisers, and 10 different companies, including the City of Sarnia, who acted as Unified Command during the simulation.  

Community notifications were also tested as part of the simulation via the My Community Notification Network (MyCNN), which provides time-sensitive alerts about emergencies and other important community news to registered subscribers. A test notification was sent out to all subscribers in the region just as it would in the event of a real emergency. MyCNN subscribers were also sent a survey link to collect public feedback on local emergency preparedness.  

A breakfast event was held the following day to recognize successes and to share learnings. At this event, BASES presented a $200,000 cheque to Sarnia Emergency Management towards the purchase of their new incident command vehicle.  Pictured above is Ron Realesmith, CEMC, City of Sarnia; Glenn Hayes, Imperial Refinery Plant Manager/Co-Chair, CAER; Conor Poutney, Vice President, Suncor Sarnia Refinery/Co-Chair, CAER; and Chris Carter, CAO, City of Sarnia. 

To learn more about local emergency preparedness efforts, or to register for MyCNN notifications, please visit the Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) webpage HERE.