Wildfire Planning: Response and Recovery - November 13, 2025
Collaboration is key to effective emergency management. This was the driving force behind this tabletop exercise hosted by the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC), which brought together EPIC members and their invited partners.
The tabletop exercise was specifically structured to address crucial topics in wildfire planning: response and recovery. Through a facilitated discussion, participants were challenged to review and apply their school's established emergency plans and protocols.
This exercise successfully fostered open dialogue and mutual understanding across agencies. It is important to note that the goal was to enhance collective preparedness, not to conduct a performance evaluation of any specific school's emergency response protocol related to wildfire.
All participants participated in the following three (3) modules:
- Module 1: Incident Occurs: Initial Actions & Notifications
- Module 2: Conditions Worsen & Evacuation
- Module 3: Sustained Threat and Advanced Planning
Participants were intentionally seated together by school and city jurisdiction. This arrangement allowed for immediate, focused collaboration with their dedicated local city emergency managers, law enforcement, and fire personnel. Each exercise module included over 30 minutes of discussion time specifically allocated for each jurisdiction. Following these local discussions, each school/city team reported their key concerns and challenges to the larger group. The focus was on their specific agency function and how best to address the unfolding scenario presented in the Situation Manual. A comprehensive PowerPoint presentation and enlarged maps of the impacted areas were used throughout the modules to simulate the realistic progression of the wildfire incident.
Severe Earthquake - Critical Infrastructure damage - November 21, 2024
The exercise was a facilitated tabletop exercise with members of the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC) and their invited guests. The tabletop exercise covered the response and recovery phases to a moderate earthquake (5.9) – primarily focusing on the recovery phase for this exercise. The goal for all participants was to remain focused during the discussion on their respective agency’s emergency plans and protocols. The tabletop exercise was not designed to evaluate any one specific school’s emergency response/recovery protocols.
All participants participated in the following three (3) Operational Periods:
- Operational Period #1: Response (Day 1)
- Operational Period #2: Recovery (Day 2 through Day 7)
- Operational Period #3: Recovery (Day 8 through Day 14)
The exercise begin with a scenario summary for Operational Period #1. Following the scenario, exercise participants were taken through each Operational Period one at a time to discuss arising issues, using prompting discussion questions, and making critical decisions as necessary.
Football Stadium Shooting - Mass Casualty Incident - November 16, 2023
The exercise was a facilitated tabletop exercise with members of the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC) and their invited guests. The tabletop exercise covered preparedness, response, and recovery phases for an after-hours football stadium incident (shooting - mass casualty incident). The goal for all participants was to remain focused during the discussion on their respective agency’s emergency plans and protocols. The tabletop exercise was not designed to evaluate any one specific school’s emergency preparedness, response and/or recovery protocols.
Exercise participants participated in the following three (3) modules:
- Module 1: Preparedness: School Resources and Staged Assets
- Module 2: Response: Incident Occurs; Initial Actions & Notifications
- Module 3: Recovery: Security, Evacuation, PIO, Medical, Reunification
Exercise participants were broken into five (5) different function groups (security; public information officer; medical; evacuation; mass care/reunification) and were given 30 minutes as individual groups to dialogue each of the 3 modules. Each group then reported out to the larger groups their concerns and challenges for their specific function and how to best address the unfolding incident as presented in the Situation Manual. A PowerPoint and enlarged maps of the impacted stadium was used to simulate the progression of the incident as participants were taken through each module.
Violent Intruder - November 17, 2022
The exercise was a facilitated tabletop exercise with members of the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC). The tabletop exercise covered the response and recovery phases to a violent school incident – primarily focused on the recovery phase for the exercise. Even though the locations depicted during the tabletop exercise varied, the goal for all participants was to remain focused during the discussion on their respective agency’s emergency plans and protocols. The tabletop exercise was not designed to evaluate any one specific school’s emergency response/recovery protocols.
Participants participated in the following four (4) modules:
- Module 1: Response: Incident Occurs; Initial Actions and Notification(s)
- Module 2A: Recovery: Student/Family Reunification (Hospitals)
- Module 2B: Recovery: Student/Family Reunification (Off Campus)
- Module 3: Recovery: Family Assistance Center (FAC)
Exercise began with a scenario summary. Following the scenario, exercise participants were taken through each module one at a time to discuss arising issues, using prompting discussion questions to make critical decisions as necessary. A PowerPoint and enlarged maps of the impacted school and other locations were used to simulate the progression of the incident as participants were taken through each module.
wildfire planning - November 8, 2021
Tabletop Exercise (TTX) lasting 2.5 hours that involved three (3) training modules that took exercise participants through a similar TTX from May 22, 2019 (below): Initial Response & Notifications; Conditions Worsen & Evacuation; and finally Sustained Threat and Advanced Planning.
silverado fire - debrief 2020
On October 26, 2020, the Silverado Fire impacted the City of Irvine and other surrounding communities. As a result of the wildfire preparedness work by members of the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC), schools in the Greater Irvine area were able to quickly coordinate with law enforcement to evacuate impacted schools and reunify students with their families at an off site location. On December 9, 2020, EPIC came together virtually to conduct a debrief on lessons learned.
Wildfire Planning - May 22, 2019
Tabletop Exercise (TTX) lasting 2.0 hours that involved three (3) training modules that took exercise participants through Initial Response & Notification, Conditions Worsen and Evacuation; and finally Sustained Threat and Advanced Planning.