FSJ emergency services to participate in full-scale drill at North Peace Airport

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Members of Fort St John emergency services will meet at the North Peace Regional Airport on Wednesday to run through a full-scale emergency drill with the assistance of the Stage North Theatre Society.

Occurring every four years, emergency responders, along with the airport, run through an aircraft crash scenario to ensure appropriate collaboration in the event of an actual incident.

The drill will include members of the RCMP, BC Ambulance Service, and firefighters from the Energetic City and surrounding communities.

Mike Karsseboom with the NPRA says a discussion-based exercise takes place during the years when a live exercise isn’t scheduled.

Wednesday’s exercise will also include volunteers portraying plane crash victims from the Stage North Theatre Society, which put the call out for assistance earlier last month, encouraging the actors to be “as dramatic as possible.”

Participants will be given a tag describing their injuries, and safewords will be told to participants in the event of an actual emergency.