Full-scale emergency exercise held in Weiser

With plans in the works for the past two years, a full scale hazardous materials (HazMat) exercise played out in Weiser on Friday, June 13. 

 Coordinating through the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM), emergency personnel from multiple county and community-based agencies across southern Idaho, along with federal partners, were in town, starting the full day event in the parking lot at Weiser High School before moving to the Amalgamated Sugar beet dump on West 9th Street.

 IOEM Public Affairs Officer Tristan Lewis told the Signal American a full scale exercise hadn’t played out since before 2020.

 “Something like this takes a minute, so this has been a build up,” Lewis said. “There were a couple of table top trainings last year getting ready for this, and even arranging for this site, our private partners program manager worked with Amalgamated for the site’s use.

 Lewis described the benefit of bringing first responders and emergency personnel from all levels together to build relationships, and become better familiarized with who does what in complex situations.

 “You don’t want the first time you meet someone to be in the middle of a disaster,” Lewis said. “This is an opportunity to put faces to names and get to know people.”

 IOEM Bureau Chief Ben Roeber explained the “why” behind the exercise.

 “What’s important from a local perspective, Washington and Payette counties respond to events daily, and the sheriff’s office, EMS, and fire departments all do a fantastic job at what they do, but sometimes we have incidents in Idaho that are much bigger and exceed local capability,” Roeber said. “That requires an extra level of coordination with the private sector, the rail company, state and federal government, or regional response teams. 

 “That added complexity can make an incident go relatively smoothly, or you can have cascading impacts if it’s not done right,” Roeber added. “We’re excited to help support this exercise, so they can build upon these relationships they have as being neighboring counties and dealing with a complex incident in how they would form, how they would be able to respond.”

 Additionally, Roeber said the exercise scenario can demonstrate how local agencies can leverage the State of Idaho to plus-up what they’re dealing with.

 “And when it exceeds our capabilities, how we lean upon our federal partners to get those additional resources to assist,” he said. “I’m hoping the local community understands they have some fantastic leadership that takes this stuff seriously for the protection of their citizens.”

 Filling the role of a public information officer during the exercise, Weiser Fire District Chief Bud Fisher told the Signal American responding to HazMat situations takes a lot of time.

 “It’s a step-by-step process that has to be done,” Fisher said. “HazMat is very different, a tough part of emergency response that’s not getting better.

 “There are more and more chemicals being developed, dangerous stuff, and I don’t think people realize how much of it is shipped by rail,” Fisher said. “UPRR is the largest shipper of hazardous material. When you see a rail siding or a train, there can be some bad stuff on it. I’ve seen 20 to 30 trains a day come through, and they’re getting bigger. There’s a lot more stuff on them.”

 IOEM’s Training and Exercise Chief Levi Orr explained evaluators were observing various parts of the exercise.

 “We’ve created the exercise evaluation guide, and they utilize that to look for some key elements we’re hoping our responders do throughout the exercise,” Orr said. “At the end of that our evaluators are responsible for taking all of the observations of the beats we want them to observe, and just the other natural occurrences that come with the nature of a full scale exercise.”

 Orr said after each evaluation report is submitted, they will be compiled into an after action report.

 “We’ll bring everyone back to the table in a virtual meeting in August, and look at what we saw, where we can improve, and what the report indicates for all of the different agencies involved,” Orr said.

 Washington County’s Emergency Manager Johnny Biddinger was pleased with the opportunity for the county first responders to participate.

 “Our first responders were able to work through a major HazMat incident alongside Payette County and our State HazMat teams in a unified command structure,” Biddinger said. “They all have experience with these types of incidents, but putting a large scale exercise together and focusing on fine tuning our capabilities is not something we do too often.

 “As the County Emergency Manager our first responders make my job easier, and as a dad with children and family in our community, I am thankful for the first responders we have,” he said.