Emergency management

election.

National would remove the FENS board and turn FENS into a departmental agency directly accountable to the Ministry for Emergency Management with a formal turnaround plan.

The party would also require FENS to provide additional mental health and injury support for volunteer firefighters, including privately funded insurance for event-based mental injuries and gradual process injuries linked to service.

National's Emergency Management Spokesperson Mark Mitchell joins me now.

A very good morning to you.

Hey, good morning, Kiri.

Yes, some related to pumps, other things related to communication systems.

But yes, you're right, we've got to make sure that our firefighters have got world-class equipment to be able to do their job with.

This is an Ion Annapolis bonus podcast.

We're a bit late to the party, but we're sitting here with Preeti Emrick, who is the director of the Office of Anne Arundel County's Emergency Management.

And I probably butchered the name of that title, but it's

close enough.

Or is it more just about ready for when something undefined happens?

You know, I talk about disasters and the different types of events that could happen in your life.

And so, you know, in emergency management, we deal with the large scale disasters.

But a disaster to a person could be a home fire, right?

I have a great team that does most of the work for me.

But in terms of responsibility, I'm responsible for that umbrella of providing public safety, which is law enforcement services, fire, EMS, and emergency management.

So big picture, I'm responsible for all of that.

No big deal.

That was published in tw- 2021.

Also, Dr. Samantha Montano is associate professor of Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and you've taught courses on a range of disaster subjects, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation, vulnerable populations, and the political and legal foundations of emergency management, disaster communications, disaster film, and disaster nonprofits.

There's a lot we, I really wanna unpack here.

Also, you're co-founder of Disaster Researchers for Justice and the Center for Climate Adaption or Adaptation Research, Bachelor's in Science in Psychology from Loyola University, New Orleans, and Master's and PhD in Emergency Management from North Dakota State University.

A really interesting background.

Um, I am curious, when you decided to go into psychology, did you, um, did you always have, like, that end goal of, of going towards emergency management, or did that kind of evolve, too?

Not really at first.

Um, I did my undergrad at Loyola University in New Orleans right after Katrina, and so I was mostly there less to go to class and more to help with the recovery.

On the show today, well, it's Ian Foss, and here's why he's awesome.

He's the Director of Search and Rescue for Emergency Management BC.

He's Instructor for the Disaster and Emergency Management Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and that's on top of more than a Well, more than a decade.

How long have you been working in the emergency field, Ian?

It's interesting.

And in between seasons, I taught first aid and then river rescue.

So it started early for me.

And I just continued on just hopping different positions that involve emergency management in some way.