There's nothing better than live training for emergency responders.
"It's invaluable," said Meaghan Forneri, a first responder instructor and firefighter in the Municipality of Neebing.
Forneri was the event coordinator for a helicopter safety and crash response exercise at the Neebing municipal office Saturday that included a mock helicopter crash.
The exercise was part of the 2013 FireCon that brought hundreds of firefighters from across the region to the city for training throughout the weekend.
On Friday, the group participating in the chopper crash simulation were taught how to gain access to the craft to access hurt individuals.
Saturday's exercise included casualties sporting fake blood and wounds.
"The group of 19 is going to come out, run the scenario like a real live scene, extricate the patients and provide the care for them that we would do on a normal scene," Forneri said.
Mock disasters like this are the best kind of training for firefighters and other emergency personnel, she added.
"Not practicing on anything and then having to go out and try to do it is very overwhelming and usually it doesn't end very well, so the more live training we do, the better ready we are for an incident that actually happens," she said.
Neebing firefighters have not had to respond to a helicopter crash yet, but Forneri said there is a lot of helicopter activity in the area.
"With the Ring of Fire, there is also a lot of helicopter activity going over other municipalities and other townships so we tried to open it up to everybody in Northwestern Ontario," she said.
There were people from Kenora to Orillia participating in Saturday's event as well as three instructors from Neebing Emergency Services Team and a pilot from Wisk Air.
