Camden EMA Gives Insight Into The “Full Scale Fire Exercise” Planned For Thursday

Natural cover and brush fires happen all too often here at Lake of the Ozarks whether accidental, fueled by Mother Nature or intentional.

But are we ready for an event the magnitude of what happened just about a year ago in Cooper County…?

“We started with actually, the string of exercises was a discussion based. It was a tabletop where it’s a wildfire. And I know some of you have lived here long enough to remember when half the county was on fire. And if anybody recalls the fires up in Cooper County in Woolridge last year, that’s what this is kind of based around because it’s very realistic.”

Camden County Emergency Management Director Samantha Henley says a full-scale exercise will focus on a doomsday wildland fire like what happened in the tiny Village of Wooldridge, population about 60, which had most of its structures destroyed in the blaze that also consumed some 3,000 acres.

The full-scale exercise in Camden County will take place next Thursday, the 26^th. E-M-A officials are hoping for a wide turnout of participants.