April 16 – Thirty six public safety agencies throughout St. Louis County took part in tabletop drills held today at the Eveleth City Auditorium. St. Louis County Emergency Management Coordinator Josh Brinkman said nearly 70 representatives from the various organizations had to manage several wildland fire scenarios. In each of the scenarios, participants had to determine fire attack strategies based on available resources. To add to the exercises, the evacuation of people in the impacted areas was put into play. “The Incident Command System (ICS) was critical in all of these exercises,” said Brinkman. “It was a great learning experience because we involved people from a wide variety of disciplines ranging from fire departments to law enforcement agencies to public health and public works departments. Everyone played a key role in these drills. All of the scenarios were made as realistic as possible.”
