“Operation Dry Lightning” a Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Exercise Case Study

The Issue

The District of North Vancouver encompasses 160 square kilometres on the north shore of the Burrard Inlet.  It is known for its natural beauty and parkland, as 70 percent of the area is wilderness.  The District is also home to 85,000 residents many of which are close to forested areas.  The District recognizes that wildland/urban interface (WUI) fires can pose a significant threat to both people and property.

In 2007, the District created a Community Wildfire Protection Plan that includes many preparedness and response components as well as an assessment of current hazards and recommendations to mitigate risk.  The plan provided a framework for a number of initiatives such as a fuel management program and also highlighted the need for coordinated and effective response to fires. 

The Solution

In order to respond effectively to WUI fires within the District of North Vancouver, a coordinated effort is required involving over ten different agencies.  To enhance its state of readiness, the District conducted a tabletop exercise as a precursor to a full-scale “live” exercise.  Following the tabletop, the District applied for a Joint Emergency Preparedness Program (JEPP) grant, which afforded the hiring of Global Consulting.  Global was able to assist the District with all aspects of exercise design and delivery, including:

• Facilitating the exercise design committee meetings
• Assisting the participating agencies to develop their objectives and play events
• Coordinating all  play events and injects  for the Incident Command Post and the Emergency Operations Centre
• Developing exercise materials for agency coordinators (roles/responsibilities, site safety, communications protocols)
• Creating/reviewing questionnaires for observers, evaluators, and participants
• Writing of the formal  exercise report

The Exercise: Operation Dry Lightning

June 11, 2008 – The exercise scenario included a forest fire that was started by dry lightning just east of the base Grouse Mountain Skyride. The fire soon escalated and it was evident that a large, multi-agency response would be required to fight the fire, protect homes in the area and evacuate local residents.  The exercise involved approximately 150 participants from over ten organizations, including but not limited to:

Key activities included Unified Command and response at the fire site, a full activation of the Emergency Operations Centre, testing of fire protection equipment (sprinklers) and door-to-door visits to local residents by RCMP members to discuss evacuation procedures.

The Results

Overall the value of the exercise was in its ability to allow participants a chance to enact the full response spectrum including unplanned events and obstacles as the following quotes attest.

“It was very important that we allow the individual agencies within the larger group to test their own, specific emergency plans and responsibilities within the framework of the master plan.  As an example, for the North Vancouver RCMP detachment, it meant actually doing a test of their neighbourhood evacuation plan by having members going door to door in the affected area.”

Fiona Dercole, District of North Vancouver’s Public Safety Manager

“We’ve worked with Metro and MOF in the past, but we learned so much more about each other in putting this together. Understanding each other’s responsibilities and capabilities as we do now gives us all a much stronger working relationship. The respect we have for each other’s expertise puts us all at ease when working together.  It’s all about the relationships.”

Victor Penman, Deputy Chief of the District of North Vancouver Fire Rescue Service