Moorabool council is making sure its staff are prepared for the upcoming fire season.
The council is running an in-house emergency management exercise on October 31.
Exercise Burndawan is to give staff an opportunity to practice the opening and operation of emergency relief centres, including a centre that will house animals, and performing secondary impact assessments to assist the community during relief and recovery from an emergency within the shire.
The exercise will allow staff to test the council’s capability, capacity and preparedness in the event of a fire in the upcoming fire season or for a future storm or flood event which may occur.
Chief executive Derek Madden said there are so many variables and things happen and change at a rapid pace during an emergency, so training sessions such as this are vital.
“With the dryer than normal winter months, it is even more important for our staff to be aware of their roles to support our communities if an emergency occurs in our area.”
To achieve these objectives, council officers from a wide range of service areas will be in the Ballan and Dales Creek areas to complete the scenario.
Key emergency service agencies that have a role in emergency relief centres will be in attendance and neighbouring council emergency management staff will undertaking observations to ensure learnings and improvements can be documented
