Vaughan's Emergency Planning

What is an emergency?

An emergency can result from an existing danger or a threat of impending danger. Its nature and size require a controlled and coordinated response by a number of government, private and community agencies.

Emergencies are categorized as:

• natural
• human-caused
• technological

Emergencies vary in scale:

• local
• regional
• provincial
• national
• international

Vaughan’s role

Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service’s priorities are to save lives, protect the safety and well-being of residents, and contain or suppress any danger.

Vaughan’s role in an emergency:

• fight fires
• provide emergency medical services and transportation
• manage hazardous material spills and releases
• issue protective orders of shelter in place or evacuation
• maintain or re-establish water and sewage systems
• communicate and respond to inquiries from the public and media
• assist with family reunification

Vaughan’s role once the emergency is controlled:

• assess the impact on the community
• continue to protect the health, safety and well-being of citizens
• determine re-entry procedures
• implement recovery strategies to bring the community to a pre-emergency state

Vaughan’s Emergency Plan

The purpose of Vaughan’s Emergency Plan (PDF) is to establish guidelines and operating structures to ensure the City is as ready as possible when faced with an emergency or disaster. The plan is designed to:

• maximize emergency response capabilities.
• establish roles and responsibilities of responding agencies in preparing for, responding to and recovering from an emergency.
• organize resources.
• minimize the impact on the health, safety, and welfare of citizens, property, environment and critical infrastructure.
• co-ordinate the actions of all responding agencies.
• identify, request and provide additional resources and expertise that may be required.
• maintain and/or rapidly recover critical City services.