While city crews and others work hard at not being in the position where they need to be rescued from a trench, it's good to know there are members of the Moose Jaw Fire Department able to rescue them if the need arises.

City of Moose Jaw Communications director Craig Hemingway said there were about 10 firefighters and 10 city employees on the exercise on the 900 block of Normandy Drive Thursday, but everybody respected the barricades and the detours as the exercise was going on.

Hemingway, communications director with the city, explains what was going on.

“We did a mock trench rescue where we had the Moose Jaw Fire Department deploy their rescue team and we simulated a potential scenario where one of our workers had to be rescued from a trench,” he said.

Things ran well between the public and the members of the city and the rescue team.

“We appreciate the interest and safety is first at the city,” Hemingway said. “We do these things to ensure the safety of both our personnel and our residents.”

Hemingway said it was important to have these exercises.

“This would be standard procedure for us to do these sorts of things, because it is part of our safety protocol, to handle these mock exercises,” he said. “It really puts into focus when our employees do go down into a trench, there are things that could happen.”

Tomorrow is the beginning of public works week in the city of Moose Jaw.