(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Dam Fire Department is conducting a multi-jurisdictional training exercise Wednesday evening. The exercise will begin at 6:15pm and is expected to run for two hours. It is being held at the Bayshore Apartments located at 116 Lakecrest Drive in the city.
Fire Chief Michael Wesle says the exercise will simulate a mutual aid response to a target hazard, specifically focusing on a large-scale fire in a multifamily residential occupancy. He adds that the training has two main goals.
“One part of the drill is really geared towards the response,” says Wesle. “When we have a large scale event we really don’t have any organizations in Dodge County that are large enough to handle something like this…if this was on fire…by themselves. So, we really rely on our neighbors…and we use what’s called the MABAS Program for that…and that stands for Mutual Aid Box Alarm System…and so this drill, on one end, is going to be related to MABAS and our MABAS response.”
Wesle says that response is pre-planned and will involve 10 other local fire departments, the sheriff’s office, as well as the county’s dispatch center. The chief adds that the other training component relates to incident command.
“So this will allow everybody to simulate a MABAS response and come in…they’ll all be given assignments and then they’ll be tasked with carrying out those assignments,” says Wesle. “So, this allows for our incident commanders…people that are going to be running the emergency scene to get some more experience.”
Wesle notes that there will be a significant amount of fire department apparatus and personnel in the area during the training.
