Savage Energy Terminal Hosts Emergency Response Training Exercises

PRICE, Utah (Nov. 7, 2014)—As part of the Vigilant Guard 2014 Exercise conducted this week by the Utah Division of Emergency Management and Utah National Guard, the Savage Energy Terminal hosted National Guard units from surrounding states in full-scale emergency response exercises designed to test their readiness to assist communities in responding to an earthquake or other natural disaster. The training scenarios involved members of military Civil Support Teams from Idaho, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico, and were conducted in partnership with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, Carbon County Emergency Management and the area Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

“With the help of one of our local partners, Savage Energy Terminal in Price, we were able to pull off a successful week of complex training that will not only keep our local community safer and enable us to respond more efficiently and effectively; it also gives our citizen soldiers an opportunity to step out of their normal response areas to test and apply their talents and capabilities within situations to which they are not accustomed,” said Jason Llewelyn, Carbon County Emergency Management Director.

In September, a similar full-scale emergency exercise was held at the Savage Energy Terminal. Its purpose was to assess the ability of Carbon County emergency responders and Savage team members at the terminal to respond to a natural disaster, including the initial evaluation, rescue and evacuation, and interagency communications. Participating agencies included the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office; Carbon County Ambulance; Carbon County Emergency Management; Carbon County Hazmat; Utah Department of Public Safety – Utah Division of Emergency Management; Price Communications; Helper Fire, Price Fire and Wellington Fire Departments; and the Southeastern Utah District Health Department.

“Through this combined effort, our goal was to assess our readiness for any emergency situation and identify ways we can improve,” said Dean Hadden, Savage Energy Terminal Maintenance Manager. “Many months of preparation went into this exercise. While we hope a real event like this never occurs, it’s important that we’re always ready to work together with emergency responders to help ensure the safety of our employees and the community.”

“Carbon County would like to give a huge thank you to the Savage Energy Terminal team for allowing local emergency responders and the Civil Support Teams to train in sharpening their response and coordination efforts,” said Llewelyn. “This type of training is priceless to our community, to Utah and surrounding states, so that emergency responders can continue protecting and assisting to keep people safe in the event of an earthquake or other emergency.”