Town, fire department host open house for Emergency Preparedness Week

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In recognition of Emergency Preparedness Week, the Town of Strathmore and Strathmore Fire Department hosted an open house at the local fire hall on May 7.

The event was free to attend, and was hosted by local fire crews and town emergency management staff.

According to Sara Coutts, emergency management coordinator for the Town of Strathmore, the aim of the open house was to promote individual and community preparedness so as to lessen the impact of potential disasters in the region.

“Emergency preparedness week is a way for Alberta and Canada as a whole to get community members more prepared. This year, Emergency Preparedness Week is all about building preparedness habits,” she said. “It is critical for our community members to take steps needed to be prepared for an event in case it happens within our region as we have seen before.”

Some of the material which was promoted during the open house included escape planning, 72-hour kits and Voyent Alerts.

A Voyent Alert is similar to an Alberta Emergency Alert, but is used at a more local level to communicate with subscribers regarding situations such as emergencies, evacuations and advisories.

“Our hope is that our community members will help us by using Voyent Alert to keep up to date on need-to-know information and get involved with emergency preparedness,” said Coutts.

During the open house at the fire hall, Coutts added there were four stations for folks to interact with and learn about methods to be prepared for an emergency. 

This year’s event is the first such open house which has been hosted by the town and fire department, though it is not the inaugural practise of Emergency Preparedness Week.

“We were hoping for a good outcome. I think our last open house for fire prevention week, we had about 150 to 200 people show up. We would like to see as much of the community come as possible,” said Coutts. “We really want to widen and grow our capacity, and so emergency preparedness on an individual level is a huge part of that. We really want to just make sure that our community members are ready and know what to be ready for.”

May 7 marked the second day of emergency management week, according to Coutts. Throughout the remainder of the week, she added the town will be sharing a variety of resources with more information regarding emergency preparedness and how to be preparded.