This year the GSCP as member of the COVALEX co-organized along with the Municipal of Erymanthos, a TTX for organized evacuation of citizens in case of wildfire. The main goals of that exercise were to check the local plans, to enhance the communication and cooperation between the key players in such events and to educate/awake the local citizens and communities in civil protection matters.
Thirteen main players (men and women) from the Municipality of Erymanthos (4), the Region of Western Greece (2), the Fire Brigade (3), the Police (2) and the National and Regional Health Care System (2). Additional with those main players there were also present and had roles and responsibilities the forest agency, the president of the local community, the head of a local Monastery and representatives of the communications centers of the agencies.
The main scenario was presented in the participants in which a wildfire starts near the village of “Agios Dimitrios” and headed towards the village threatening the lives and properties of the citizens. The head of the local fire brigade assessing the situation suggest to the Mayor the preventive evacuation of the community which is in the path of the fire.
Based on previous experience on this kind of situation, the participants were able to train and discuss in depth their roles and responsibilities in different cases that they were presented to them through different episodes. The episodes were presented to the players through a presentation along with maps from the area. After the presentation the players had the time to discuss between them and to present o solution to each episode. When the episode was being completed, an in-depth discussion was taking place with the representative of GSCP. Through this procedure the players had the opportunity to cooperate and exchange knowledge and improve their interoperability.
After all episodes were completed, the players had time to ask questions and to solve any misunderstanding they had about this kind of operations . Finally, a hot wash analysis took place, and the participants, the observers and evaluators
had the opportunity to say their opinion about the organization of the exercise and about the problems and difficulties of such operation. After the event, the Mayor had organized lunch for the participant in which they discussed farther and in more relaxed and unofficial mood about what we learned that day.
The main conclusion we extract from this training is that the preventive evacuation of citizens (not emergency evacuation) is a complex operation with many difficulties and restrictions. The operation is becoming more difficult when we must deal with large amount of people that have deferent state of awareness and knowledge, when we must safely relocate people with disabilities, elders and toddlers and when foreign citizens are involved.
