The Context/Objectives
The facility and corporate headquarters were seeking to validate and enhance their emergency response procedures for a hazardous materials incident. They had faced challenges in the past with ensuring consistent and rapid notification, maintaining information flow between field responders and headquarters, and optimizing the use of digital coordination tools. They had the following objectives for this exercise:
- Test their emergency plan and demonstrate compliance with federal and provincial regulations.
- Evaluate their coordination with municipal first responders, clarify command roles, and test unified command with external agencies.
- Examine the integration of emergency plans between agencies and identify opportunities to improve documentation and objective tracking.
Our Solution
Sandhurst Consulting designed and facilitated a one-day full-scale exercise at the client’s site and corporate office. The exercise included:
- A realistic leak and ignition scenario requiring multi-agency engagement and activation of an Incident Command Post (ICP) and their Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
- Approximately 30-40 participants including site responders, corporate staff, and municipal fire and police representatives to participate directly in the exercise, with additional observers and evaluators.
- Real-time notifications, live and simulated musters, live coordination with external fire and police.
- Participant use of hands-on digital collaboration platforms (Microsoft Teams, SharePoint), interaction with Sandhurst’s simulation cell, and application of their emergency plan to respond to the emergency.
- Sandhurst provided exercise control and coordination, process observation, and guidance to test decision-making and generate a post-exercise report.
Value Created & Lessons Learned
- 40 personnel were trained in a realistic, high-consequence event and demonstrated effective site muster, use of the Incident Command System (ICS), application of public protection measures, and constructive collaboration with municipal authorities.
- Reinforced compliance with national and provincial requirements.
- Several participants expressed appreciation for the clarity gained around roles, response cadence, and the value of working with first responders during exercises in preparing for real incidents.
A final report provided a clear roadmap of prioritized recommendations to further strengthen emergency preparedness and response maturity. Key improvement areas were identified and recommendations for improvement included:
- Ambiguity in notification processes and briefing cadence.
Recommendation: Standardized notification procedures including notifications to Executives, standardize briefing formats, and identify a cadence for testing of notification systems. - Gaps in objective tracking and information flow between ICP and EOC, often relying too much on verbal or informal updates.
Recommendation: Implement more digital solutions for shared objective tracking between the two teams and any external agencies. Enhance the use of visual communication tools such as a common operating picture. - Physical and digital facility limitations: insufficient visual displays, acoustics, and layout hindering situational awareness.
Recommendation: Reconfigure the layout of the ICP and EOC to group ICS sections functionally and preserve the line-of-sight to command. - Need for greater familiarity and practical skill in Unified Command and use of a Joint Information Centre (JIC).
Recommendation: Personnel responsible for Unified Command should be provided with ICS 300 level training. Future exercises should continue to incorporate engagement with first response agencies to foster relationships and refine coordination protocols.
Trust Sandhurst to deliver impactful emergency response events and ensure your teams are ready to preserve and protect before timing and immediate actions become critical. https://sandhurstconsulting.com/
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