Command and Control

This past May marked the one-year anniversary of the fires that devastated the Town of Slave Lake in Alberta. The month was filled with news stories looking back at the disaster, the calamitous loss in the town and the challenges faced by responders. The town has made a great deal of progress, but continues to rebuild more than one year later.

Insurance Bureau of Canada data indicate insured damage caused by the wildfires amounted to more than $700 million, making it the second most expensive insured disaster in Canadian history. As insurance and restoration professionals, we are an integral part of the response to any event of this scale. It is a demanding environment in which we are asked to work quickly and efficiently, navigate any particular challenges presented and perform due diligence to help keep costs down. Slave Lake was no different.

Wildfires burning outside the Town of Slave Lake on May 15, 2011 were initially contained to an area approximately 15 km outside of town. Winds in excess of 100 km-h caused the flames to jump the fire barriers. After that, nothing was able to stop the fire from sweeping through the community, destroying 40% of the town and forcing the evacuation of almost all of its 7,000 residents. For days, the highways were blocked 70 km south of the town, and residents weren’t allowed to return. The fire damaged more than 700 homes and businesses, including the RCMP detachment, grocery stores, the library, a local radio station and the Town Hall.

Slave Lake is a remote community, located about 280 km northwest of Edmonton. Its location presented a number of challenges to those arriving to help the immediate recovery effort.

The first challenge was dealing with basic logistics. The fire destroyed and damaged nearly half of the buildings in the town. Facilities for coordinating efforts and lodging for the dozens of insurers, adjusters and support staff coming in from out of town were therefore scarce, to say the least.

Drawing upon lessons learned from previous disasters, FirstOnSite catastrophe (CAT) responders have developed a command-and-control model, which includes a central command centre. This self-sufficient model was applied to Slave Lake, where a camp was built on a 10-acre plot of land approximately five kilometres outside of town and equipped with power, running water and wireless Internet.

For weeks following the fire, the camp fed and slept a team of 150 people, including supervisors, insurance adjusters and other personnel.

The command centre model provides a highly efficient central location from which to coordinate restoration efforts. Stakeholders responsible for different aspects of the response process were able to meet, share information and coordinate efforts effectively. Working within this tightly knit community was extremely helpful in informing and managing the expectations of clients and stakeholders.

The efficiency generated by this model is also very effective in keeping logistical costs to a minimum despite complications associated with working in a remote location.

Support for the command centre is drawn from a national network of branches. In the instance of Slave Lake, the network provided restoration personnel from six Canadian provinces, from British Columbia to Quebec. Any additional support was obtained by hiring extra hands locally through ads or job fairs.This not only controlled costs, it helped to build a rapport with people living in the community.

Personnel at the command centre included mobilized restoration professionals and local hires. In addition, staff members were brought in to liaise with insurers who couldn’t immediately make it to Slave Lake.These coordinators scouted sites and took pictures so that insurers had enough information to prepare for their arrival, thereby saving time and money.

One of the main concerns of insurers deployed to Slave Lake was the possibility of a “demand surge” — a spike in demand over a short period of time in an area with scarce resources. This can potentially drive up the costs of restoration efforts, including labour and material costs, to unanticipated levels.

In Slave Lake, any cost increases were a byproduct of the location — for example, costs related to shipping, transportation, lodging, etc. Materials, labour and other direct costs were kept in line by a national procurement strategy, an extensive employee base, and existing client agreements. Each of these characteristics is an essential part of any CAT business model.

Responding under pressure is a challenge in any situation, but particularly when the volume of work needed is so extensive and the stakes so high. By building strategic systems to respond to large-scale disasters, pre-planning can take place and resources can be secured for an organized response. These systems must take into account the unique demands of all stakeholders, and continually work towards refining the response.

Deploying tested models optimize the efficiency of a CAT response, which results in a consistent delivery model where costs are controlled and expectations are properly managed, even under the most stressful circumstances.