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San Fernando Police Department
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Natural disasters, such as hurricane Katrina’s assault on Louisiana make all of us acutely aware of our vulnerabilities to disaster. Fortunately, catastrophes of this magnitude are rare, but can strike in many ways. It is unfortunate that staff often learns about the advantages of emergency preparedness through hard experience, but an emergency does not have to become a full-fledged disaster. In fact, hazards can often be mitigated or avoided altogether by a comprehensive, systematic, emergency-preparedness program. Such programs provide a means for recognizing and preventing risks, and for responding effectively to emergencies. Proper response to disasters is a perishable skill and requires training and reinforcement drills to maintain optimal proficiency.
On Thursday, November 03, 2005, San Fernando Police Department’s Support Services Division provided a Table Top Exercise in emergency response for Mayor Julie Ruelas, Councilman Dr. Jose Hernandez, and City Administrator Jose Puildo, as well as, Department Heads; Finance Director Lorena Quijano, Personnel Director Michael Okafor, Public Works Director Ron Ruiz, Planning/ Development Director Paul Deibel, Parks and Recreations Director Dan LaBrado, and Police Chief Anthony Alba.
The exercise, involving a train colliding with a semi tanker truck at the N. Maclay Avenue railroad crossing, provided a challenging set of problems including Hazardous Materials, fires, fatalities, and evacuations of major critical locations within the city. The successful exercise provided opportunities for all the departments to work together and communicate as a team to mitigate the scenario.
In addition to City personnel, Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Battalion-12 Chief Bowman and Captain Cory Rose participated in the exercise and provided their expertise to participants. Chief Bowman provided assistance as part of Unified Command from LAFD’s perspective on operations and response capabilities to a disaster of this type.
The exercise was facilitated by Roger Mason, PhD. Mr. Mason is a retired Burbank Police Lieutenant and founder of LECMgt (LECMgt). LECMgt is a company that provides comprehensive training and planning in all aspects of crisis response and critical management for natural disasters, civil unrest, major crimes, major public events, and Homeland Security. LECMgt |
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