Locals catching sight of the activities in the Mamquam River Wednesday afternoon (April 21) might have been shocked to see two dozen people diving into its freezing cold white water.
But it's that very water, and Squamish's propensity for flooding, that makes the area the perfect venue for a world-renown water management and flood management training course, held for the first time on Canadian soil this week.
The program is being held in conjunction with Raven Rescue, the leading provider of technical rescue training in Canada.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Tim Rogers, a battalion chief from the Charlotte Fire Department in North Carolina, is one of his country's senior experts on flood management and water-related disaster management.
He was supposed to be teaching the course with the help of managing director Paul O'Sullivan from Rescue 3 in the UK, but was on his own for the week due to flight cancellations across Europe.
"We actually started the program in North Carolina because we found a disconnect between the capability of the rescue technicians and the people managing them," said Rogers.
"Often times the technicians had more skills with regards to flood response than the people that were in charge of them, so we need to change that."
Squamish Fire Rescue deputy fire chief Mike Adams said he hopes the trend to base rescue training in town continues.
Adams said this type of course is beneficial because of the floods that often occur during the fall months.
"It's great to see our emergency managers here and representation from the local fire department and hopefully we can look at engaging more locals," he said.
Squamish's emergency program co-ordinator Jim Lang was one of the participants, though he was not able to participate in the actual water training. Instead, he was the co-ordinator on the beach directing the mock incident.
"This is training but we're really setting it up as though it's an incident and no incident goes without a command post. That's what I'm doing."
And not only does the town benefit only from better-trained emergency response teams, but such courses increase Squamish's profile as well, said Adam.
"My understanding is that if it goes well and its well received, maybe we'll try and host it again if not next year, then the year after," said Adam. "We'll make it an annual event if we can."
Although the course does focus on the management aspect of rescue missions, Rogers said it could appeal to people from across the board - search and rescue members, firefighters, a chief officer or a squad leader.
"This is for anyone who may be placed in a leadership role at a water or flood emergency," he said.
Executive director and instructor Walter Bucher commended Squamish for being a progressive venue for courses where all rescue workers can come together. He said courses continue next week with swiftwater training for the search and rescue arm of the Canadian military.
"It has a great location in terms of gathering people from local areas, the training sites are very good and we've had a lot of support from the community at every level," said Bucher. "It's great to hold programs here and we hope to have many more as well."
