Emergency services tested - Laval News

Terrorism simulation puts emergency response to test
Officials use unopened metro stations as stage
nanCy GirGiS
The communication and efficiency skills of the
city’s emergency response officials were put to the
test on November 22 as a wide-scale emergency
simulation was held in Laval.
This operation named Synchronicité, which
has been in the works for over a year, used the
resources of 475 individuals from 14 different
partners associated to this terrorism simulation.
The Laval police force was the biggest player in
this exercise with 140 officers affected. 64 firefighters,
more than 40 Sureté du Québec officers
and about 50 actors were also involved.
Based on a 75-page scenario, the main goal
of the Synchronicité simulation was to test the
complementarity of emergency services and their
partners in Laval. It also serves to verify the state
of readiness and the coordination of all services in
the case of state of emergency such as a terrorist
attack. “We want to make sure that all our mechanisms
are in check,” Laval police spokesperson
Daniel Guérin said. “We’re trying to ensure the
collaboration between our service and also how
well we work with our partners.”
The simulation kicked off two days prior to
the event when the Laval police force obtained
information about a possible terrorist act. Police
then increased the terrorist threat and launched
into preventive mode.
Events of the day
The scenario revolved around three different
terrorist attacks directly or indirectly related to
Laval’s three metro stations. The first event was
triggered when a 9-1-1 call was placed shortly before
9 a.m. regarding an explosion that occurred
in a metro train at the Concorde metro station.
Police officers and firefighters were dispatched
to the scene where firefighters had to rescue
several actors from the metro station located at
an estimated depth equivalent to 10 floors. The
firefighters had to descend underground and walk
back up the station’s 200 steps with a victim in
their arms. “Our firefighters have received a lot of
theory training, so this exercise was a great way
to give them some practical training, especially
with the Laval metro opening next spring,” Laval
fire department spokesperson Guy Dussault Jr.
said.
At 10:20 a.m., a second call came in from the
Cartier metro station from a STL worker who
claimed to have seen a man abandoning a car
containing two 45-gallon containers. Laval police
set up a safety perimeter of 800 meters and had to
evacuate several key buildings such as the courthouse
on des Laurentides Blvd., the neighbouring
9-1-1 central and a wastewater treatment plant.
The SQ was called to the scene with the bomb robot,
which neutralized the explosive
material by shooting the car with a
product known as ‘neutrex’.
At around noontime, another call
came in with the information that
armed terrorists had entered the
Montmorency metro station. An
elaborate scenario was not developed
considering the proximity to
the CEGEP Montmorency. Rather,
police described their intervention
and detail and what would be done
to arrest these suspects while ensuring
the safety of the citizens.
An intricate part of the simulation
was to recreate a normal day
for police and firefighters. An escape from the
St-Vincent-de-Paul prison, a brawl in Vimont and
a major accident at the corner of St-Martin and
McNamara were all simulated calls to which police
had to respond. “We received approximately
60 calls per day, so we wanted to make this simulation
as realistic as possible,” Guérin said.
Although other simulations have been held in
the province over the past few years, this is the
first to be held in the history of Laval. Synchronicité
cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars,
according to police spokesperson Daniel Guérin,
but half of the total cost will be assumed by the
provincial and federal government under the Joint
Emergency Preparedness Program, which was
conceived to encourage and support co-operation
among the federal and provincial governments
in working toward meeting emergencies
of all types with a reasonably uniform standard
of emergency response. “Taking the safety of the
population seriously is, I believe, a justification
to these costs,” Sgt. Guérin said.
Final report
All 14 partners of Synchronicité will be filing a
report on the simulation exercise by January 2007,
and a final report should be available by March.
“The report will allow us check the process from
the beginning to the end, and see the flaws and
what needs to be improved,” Guérin said, adding
that it will take a year after the final report is filed
for all adjustments to take place.
The SQ’s bomb robot shatters a van’s windows by shooting the vehicle with a
chemical substance known as ‘neutrex’ to neutralize potentially explosive material.
PHOTO: Nancy Girgis • TCN
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The Chomedey News • www.chomedeynews.ca • November 30, 2006 • 13