As wildfires raged across northwestern Ontario this summer, a Wellington County manager was among those responding to the crisis.
Bobby De Hetre, an emergency management programme coordinator for the County of Wellington, was seconded to the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) in Toronto from July 26 to Aug. 6, during what was one of the peaks of an exceptionally challenging wildfire season.
De Hetre added his name to the province's surge capacity roster earlier that year.
"I got into emergency management because I enjoy helping people," De Hetre said. "I felt it was a good opportunity to lend a hand."
In late July, as De Hetre arrived at the PEOC, officials reported the number of wildfires so far in 2021 was nearly double the 10-year provincial average.
There had been 902 wildfires, compared to a 10-year average of 520 for the same time of year. The amount of land burned was more than three times the average.
The blazes forced people from six First Nations to leave their homes.
"During my time there, at the peak, we were operating with 11 evacuation centres and around 3,000 evacuees," De Hetre said.
As a planning officer, De Hetre was responsible for sitting in on meetings between government agencies, First Nations, and emergency services to gather information, look for gaps, and then get that information to decision makers.
He identified evacuation requirements, assisted in coordinating flights into and out of communities, and tracked the location of evacuees across the province.
"It's a very fluid dynamic situation. People have personal circumstances and we're trying to accommodate for that," he explained. "You might see some evacuees requesting a transfer form one location to another, so it involves a lot of tracking and information management."
De Hetre was one of around 20 to 30 people at the Emergency Operation Centre in Toronto, but he said well over 100 people were involved in the planning calls he attended.
For De Hetre, it was "very cool" to see the massive coordinated effort of different groups working together to help people.
"Because really, at the end of the day, that's what you're doing," he said. "You know, you're a little removed, working in Toronto at the Emergency Operations Centre. But everybody's always keeping that in the back of your mind like, 'we are here to support that community.'"
"These are people who are affected by these wildfires in real time and we want to do as best as we can to support those individuals and help get them back to their communities as quickly as possible."
By the end of De Hetre's time at the EOC, some groups were starting to return home. The last evacuees were repatriated in late August.
De Hetre explained the experience reinforced to him the importance of having strong working relationships with partners and good knowledge of available resources.
"We have a saying in emergency management, you don't want to be meeting someone (for the first time) during an emergency," he said, "and that's very very real in that situation."
In Wellington County the emergency management team runs exercises with paramedics, police, public health, municipal departments like roads and engineering, and even the private sectors.
"You know there could be times where we need to rely on say an equipment supply store, we're looking for generators or something like that and just knowing the back of your head 'here's the problem we have, what resources are available? Who can we call upon to assist us in solving this problem.'"
Back at Wellington County's four-person emergency management department, the primary concerns are extreme weather events like tornados or serious winter storms. The pandemic has also been keeping staff busy.
County emergency manager, Hurania Melgar presented a report on De Hetre's secondment to the county planning committee earlier this month.
"I think it’s wonderful that we would support our staff having these learning experiences which are well beyond our borders," Coun. Mary Lloyd said. "My hope is that we don’t ever require this specific training, however it’s good to know that we have staff that have gone through these experiences."
