Spring Point Fire Drill with Island, County Agencies

The Deer Harbor Community plans an emergency preparedness drill on Saturday, May 18

By David Schermerhorn

Outline of Spring Point fire drill on Saturday, May 18, 2013:

In order to test and evaluate response times of the various agencies involved we plan to work in real time as much as possible rather than having personnel and vehicles already in place at the beginning of the drill. The Red Cross vehicle and personnel will be an exception since they will be coming by ferry from Friday Harbor. The dispatcher and the various agencies involved will be aware in advance that a drill is planned but their responses will initially be triggered by a 911 or non-emergency call and later by communications from the Incident Commander Center. It is important to record the times when calls are made requesting support and the times the units have arrived.

Dave Dilling, Chairman of the Spring Point Home Owners Association will trigger a phone-tree that he is organizing designed to alert the residents to the situation and to check on the condition of neighbors.

We learned after the planning meeting that the hand-held radios distributed among 13 volunteers will not reach from the fire site to the Fire Station due to local geography. As a result the volunteers must be prepared to communicate via their mobile phones. A listing of these numbers will be sent in a separate mailing.

This is a tentative outline of events. However the schedule is subject to change as events unfold and/or at the direction of the Incident Commander:

1- 911 call advising that drill has begun will be placed around 9:00 AM. The dispatcher will advise Orcas FD/EMS that a simulated fire is located on Spring Point Road just east of Arbutus Lane. (N 48 37.089, W 123 01.0320). The location is owned by the McVays with an easement held by the Nature Conservancy. Both parties are agreeable to this use. Approximately 100 yards further East is a flat area at the entrance to the Gottman’s driveway. John Gottman has agreed to allow the area to be used as a possible medical staging area.

2- Orcas FD/EMS dispatched to fire site.

3- Red Cross truck and personnel assemble and set up at DH Inn, the designated Emergency Center. Cots, blankets, etc. to be drawn from storage shed at location. Water, coffee, etc. will be available.

4- FD/EMS arrive at fire site. Deploy to knock down fire. Refill pumpers from pond or stand pipes as needed. Medical triage location can be set up at Gottman location or elsewhere as determined by Incident Commander.

5- Incident Commander will use Deer Harbor Fire Station as Command Center and order assets deployed from there by radio.

6- DH Emergency volunteers alerted via radio or mobile phone network and dispatched to assigned locations. These would include the Deer Harbor Inn, the back up Landing Zone on Bob Connor’s property, the Deer Harbor Marina, the Spring Point dock and the fire location.

7- Incident Commander calls Sheriff to dispatch boat for evacuation from Spring Point dock (N 48 36.853,W 123 00.647)

8- Incident Commander calls NW helicopter for an evacuation from alternative LZ on Bob Connor property (N 48 37.504,W 123 00.488).

9- Sheriff’s and possibly Coast Guard boats arrives at SP dock to take evacuees to DH Marina. Then they return to SP dock for additional evacuees. The Sheriff’s boat will probably be the one normally based on Orcas and can hold up to 6 passengers.

10- Evacuees are taken from DH Marina to Emergency Center (DH Inn).

11- Helicopter arrives at Alternate LZ and carries evacuee to Eastsound airfield. It does not return to Deer Harbor.

12- Remaining Evacuees possibly driven from SP fire site to DH Inn by volunteers’ cars or EMS vehicles.

13- Critique of Drill will be held at Deer Harbor Inn.

14- Drill concluded.