On the morning of June 10, 2019, I pulled my vehicle into Snow Lake’s uptown area and immediately saw smoke billowing from a half-ton parked haphazardly on the crosswalk in front of the school. Coming to a stop nearby, I exited my vehicle and proceeded cautiously towards the truck. I noted the stench of burning fuel and saw several empty beer cans, caught by the wind, dancing across the pavement. A short ways up the street sat another truck, heavily damaged,obviously a victim of the first. Scanning the area, there was a male occupant of one of the vehicles lying horribly twisted on the side of the road and muffled groans emitting from the second truck. Sirens wailingin the distance drowned out the groans; they grew louder as emergency vehicles converged on the area and came to a stop, just metres away. I stepped back to the safety of the schoolyard fence and watched as the professionals from within them went to work ...
This isn’t a real accident; it is a mock disaster, put on by the health region and local emergency personnel … but it easily could be. Intentional and unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for people under 44years of age. Most of those injuries are both predictable and preventable, and preventing them is exactly what the people involved today are attempting to do.
The scenario that continues to play out is convincing and the high school students who watch from the sidelines with me seem to sense both the risk of the behaviour that triggered it and the accuracy of the consequences that resulted.
Not long after the emergency vehicles converged on the street, EMTs have pronounced death on, and covered, the twisted body in the street, fire personnel have dealt with the truck fire, and an RCMP member has led the driver of the first truck away for questioning. All attention is then focused on the second half-ton:firefighters swiftly assess the situation before employing the Jaws of Life (JOL) and a reciprocating saw. The occupant is stabilized and covered with a tarp, before a firefighter straddles the hood of the truck and begins removing the windshield with the saw. Another works the JOL, chewing through the door posts. As they finish, the crew removes the entire roof of the vehicle and extracts the victim. They place her on a gurney and EMTs further stabilize her before transferring her to the waiting ambulance and from there to the Snow Lake Health Centre.
This portion of the scenario has concluded and the firefighting personnel doff their helmets and gather near the students for a discussion.NRHA community health development worker Colleen Tower and Fire Chief Cory Anaka address the students, Tower with an overview of the activities thus far and Anaka citing the real life experience of he and his crew within similar rescue situations. The students asked some intelligent and observant questions and received their replies, prior to everyone heading down to the health centre to observe how things played out once the victim arrived there.
This mock disaster involved some of Snow Lake's finest and took place under the P.A.R.T.Y. Program - Prevent Alcohol & Risk-Related Trauma in Youth. Members of the Snow Lake Fire Department, RCMP, EMS, health centre staff, school staff and the Northern Health Region staged the scene to show J.H. Kerr students the consequences of risky behaviour. From a bystander’s point of view, it took a lot of time and thought to plan and stage it so convincingly. Even though there were signs posted noting it was a mock scenario, the scene and actions were so realistic thatmany driving by thought it was an actual emergency. It was an excellent way for emergency personnel to practise and hone their response skills and a devastatingly realistic way of reminding everyone of the costs of living and acting dangerously.
In mining news, Rockcliff Metals continued to strengthen their Snow Lake land position with the June 10, 2019 notice of the company’s acquisition of two additional properties, and further expanding its wide-ranging property portfolio in the region.The SLS #5 Property, approximately 25,714 hectares in size, ties onto the company’s existing SLS #1 Property. The Danlee Copper Property, which covers a total of 80 hectares, is surrounded by the company’s SLS#1 Property and hosts copper and zinc stringers as well as massive sulphide of Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) origin.
“The acquisition of these two properties, in this world class camp, is part of our long-term strategy of organic growth as we transition into an integrated development and exploration company with our fully permitted 1,000 tpd processing facility,” said Alistair Ross, Rockcliff’s president and CEO. “Rockcliff now controls approximately 3,250 square kilometres of contiguous favourable geology under a thin cover of limestone with significant VMS discovery potential. We look forward to continuing our significant exploration initiative in this highly prospective area of the belt as we concurrently advance our high-grade development projects.”
