Flames at the  Airport Training Centre  for “Operation Pressure Cooker” -photos 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Fire, Police, Ambulance, airlines and Northern Health   were  all on hand  for a special emergency  exercise at the Prince George Airport  this  morning.

“I’m  very pleased with the way things went today” says Cuyler Green,  Director of Operations  for YXS and  in charge of the  Emergency Operations Centre set up  for today’s exercise.

(at right, Cuyler Green inside the Emergency Operations Centre )

“We’ve had great participation from the  agencies we have on board  here in the community. I am certain   we will find things that we need to improve upon, but the fact that we’ve had these  agencies come together and tested their own plans together and individually  is a good thing.”

The exercise,  labelled “Operation Pressure Cooker”  was based on a scenario that a bomb had gone off  on a plane.   The scenario then  rolled out  to everything from  dousing flames,  moving passengers  from the plane,  dealing with family and friends  of those passengers,  and  addressing security issues.

Airports in Canada are required by law to go through this kind of exercise  every four years  says Green ” Yes, we do put together a report for Transport Canada on the lessons learned, and what worked and  what didn’t.  It’s primarily for  our own purposes, but it is notification to Transport Canada that we are  following the rules.”

( at right,  Airport Fire Truck sprays foam on the  last of the flames)

Green says this is the largest exercise they’ve done in a while “This one was particularly complicated because it had not only an emergency rescue and fire, but also a significant security component  with the ‘bomb’ that was  part of the scenario.”

Green says  the Airport is mandated not only to test emergency response from a fire and medical standpoint, “but also  from a security standpoint,  and which scenario we choose is entirely up to us.  Improvised explosive devices are a threat throughout the world so that’s the one we tested.”