The Shire of Mundaring and police from the East Metropolitan District will be conducting an emergency exercise in Stoneville (Shire of Mundaring) on Saturday 23 July 2011.

The exercise will involve a mock evacuation of 100 residential properties. The residents involved will be approached by police in person prior to the day, and the community should not be alarmed if they see more police activity in the area during the morning of Saturday 23 July 2011. At no time will residents in Stoneville, including those involved in the exercise, be asked to physically leave their properties.

The exercise will help further test methods used to evacuate residents and provide information to assist determine the amount of time it will take to evacuate residents in urban and semi-rural settings in the event of a real emergency. This is the second such research exercise held by WA Police, with the first being held in Denmark during October 2010. The Denmark exercise was a great success and provided positive data which needs to be further validated through ongoing research.

Sergeant Ross Eastman, Officer in Charge of the Mundaring Police Station said WA Police is committed to the ongoing further development of emergency management and emergency response research in the interest of the WA community.

“Evacuations can prove to be difficult, especially in semi-rural settings” he said.

“The outcomes from this ongoing research will help police across the state and also provide an opportunity for the Shire of Mundaring and local police to collect important data on evacuation timeframes.”