FIREFIGHTER ALUMNUS EXCELS IN
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Jordan Newton is excited to continue protecting and serving his home city in a new capacity.
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he Lakeland College alumnus, Class of 2010, assumed the role of Emergency Management Operations (EMO) manager for the city of Lloydminster earlier this year, after serving for the Lloydminster Fire Service (LFS) for 10 years – five of those as chief.
“Since the onset of the pandemic, public safety was always the city’s highest priority. While there were
“Serving the community as fire chief for five years was the best job I’ve had; I found it extremely rewarding,” says Newton. “I chose to pursue an emergency management position because I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to learn. This position will afford me those opportunities while protecting and making the city a more viable community.”
Newton was responsible for leading the city’s Incident Management Team, which activated on March 11, and was still regularly completing tasks at publication. Acting as the Incident Commander, Newton operated a team of 10. They corresponded with Alberta and Saskatchewan officials, completed multiple daily tasks and communicated to the public regarding what safeguards were being put in place to mitigate COVID-19 transmission among the community.
As the city’s manager of EMO, Newton oversees the city’s emergency operations. He builds resiliency and business continuity plans within the organization and co-ordinates numerous teams to minimize the impact disasters have on the community. At the helm of the city’s emergency response planning for four months, Newton’s first call to action came in the form of navigating Lloydminster through the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 12
some challenges throughout the early stages, on behalf of the city, I am proud of the community’s openness to mitigation efforts and being able to adapt to change quickly.”
Throughout his COVID-19 experience, Newton says the biggest takeaway is the misconception that disasters only include fire, flood and wind events. “Rather, communities and those involved with emergency management need to look at other risks within their organization because a pandemic may expose weaknesses such as supply chain, physical infrastructure and staff resourcing.”
LAKELAND COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE
