Oakland County Hosts Training Exercise in Downtown Rochester Hills
(Oakland County, Oct. 15, 2024)
Rochester Hills, MI – On Sept. 17, 2024, Oakland County Emergency Management hosted Operation WOW – a regional full-scale disaster exercise in downtown Rochester.
The exercise, which was held at the Rochester Fire Department Training Center, lasted about 12 hours and included about 175 people from various agencies, including: Western Wayne Urban Search And Rescue, MI MABAS, MI Task Force 1, Oakland County IMT, Livingston County Incident Management Team, Oakland County North and South Technical Rescue Teams, MI MABAS Red Center (Dispatch) and Detroit Fire Department.
The scenario for the exercise was an explosion on the lower level of an apartment building including the collapse of a portion of the main tower of the building. The exercise was motivated by the incidents that occurred in the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse in Miami, Florida.
The exercise was significant for many reasons. It allowed many first responder teams from across Southeast Michigan, who don’t frequently train together, the opportunity to work on a large-scale disaster. This also allowed the teams to train on unique situations setup in an expanded time period under simulated real incident conditions.
Andrew Zaccagnini, from Oakland County Emergency Management, was one of the Incident commanders for the exercise, “While Oakland County has an abundance of resources, major incidents can quickly deplete those,” he said. “In that event, Oakland will be requesting resources from outside our county to assist. Meeting these teams and building relationships during blue-skies days, allows us to integrate and respond more efficiently during a disaster.”
This exercise was also important for Oakland County’s Incident Management Team (IMT). The team has been increasing in membership and working on honing their skills to help be deployed during disasters. The full-scale exercise focused on the IMT’s resource management and how to prepare for and transfer command to incoming teams for additional operational periods working on a disaster.
When asked what difficulties arose during the exercise, Zaccagnini said, “Different teams handle different scenarios in various ways. Understanding that there is more than one way to approach different topics is vital to success.”
Oakland County was incredibly thankful to all the partners who participated as well as the exercise sponsors that donated materials, food, supplies and their time, including: Dillman & Upton, Hungry Howies in Downtown Rochester, Doran Excavating and Peklo Portables. Without their help this exercise would not have been possible.
Stay connected with Oakland County’s Department of Emergency Management by visiting their website and following them on Facebook and Twitter.
