The day began in sunshine for Exercise Respond 2026. This year we used a hypothetical bushfire scenario in the Wildland Urban Interface (the WUI) of the Adelaide Hills face. Many Adelaide suburbs are nestled in foothills bushland – an idyllic setting, but potentially vulnerable to fast-moving fire given similar conditions to those that destroyed over 500 homes in the Canberra suburbs in 2003.
SAVEM Command in the newly operational Mobile Care Centre simulated an Activation, by placing teams on Standby, attending briefings and being given clearance to deploy to an incident ground. Task allocation, team organisation, vehicle daily inspections (DI’s) and signing out resources and equipment from Logistics preceded setting out on taskings. Toy animals labelled with information regarding their species and condition were placed in various locations in the southern Adelaide Hills. Teams had to navigate to the locations and decide on a course of action, practising radio and phone comms, and sending SitReps back to Command.
The day ended with a debrief, and heavy rain – fortunately after everyone was back at SAVEM base. We debriefed what worked well, what was less successful and what we should keep, modify or discard. Three RSPCA SA vets attended as observers, and enthusiastically joined SAVEM teams.
Next up on the Training Team’s agenda is our pre-season Operational Update. Volunteer induction is needed for new equipment, and of course for our flagship, the new SAVEM Mobile Care Centre. Watch this space!
Photos: Exercise Respond 2026, Jana Wurriehausen.