The Humboldt Broncos tragedy took place one year ago Saturday, and the lessons learned from the crash from an organizational standpoint were brought forward at the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs 69th annual conference and trade show.

Humboldt city manager Joe Day and fire chief Mike Kwasnicka presented the things they learned in dealing with the aftermath in the community and the swarm of attention they received in the days and months after the crash.

Because the crash took place away from the city but affected so many different people to congregate at Humboldt, it presented a different challenge than most other tragedies.

“Really what it was, we were responding to an event,” Day said. “Fire, police all those, they know how to react to incidences. One car crash, one fire, that sort of thing. What we were dealing with was a different kind of... event that was more of a media event than an incident we were responding to.”

Many different kinds of media assembled in the Humboldt area just as the community was coming together and mourn. Day and community leaders got together to try to manage the deluge of attention and sympathy.

“We brought in people from the mental health side to advise us how to deal with a public that was grieving and how to deal with the media that was going to be needing answers and information,” Day said.

Day said that one of the successes that they got out there was a press conference with various officials with the RCMP and fire to make sure the correct information got out.

As the vigil for the team approached a couple of days into the aftermath, they made sure that there was only going to be a pool feed of one television network and one print media outlet in the arena.

“That really limited the amount of distraction that was in the arena when the vigil was going on,” he said. “We really wanted to make sure everybody in the world could have that information, so having it fed from one source was a good way of doing it.”

Day said that with the volume of media, they could have used a media wrangler in the first couple of days of the tragedy. He said media was courteous on an individual basis.

Usually they didn’t have to ask for help, as help was immediate and offered unconditionally.

“The lesson to learn for a Saskatchewan person is that it’s OK to accept help when it’s offered,” Day said.

During their presentation, Kwasnicka noted that during the first vigil, he took that moment to sit down and eat rather than watch the vigil. As the one year anniversary of the crash is taking place at a ceremony Saturday at the arena, he still hasn’t watched the first vigil.

“At some point, I would like to watch the... original vigil,” he said. “I think (Saturday) will be a good continuation of what the community is doing. They are healing and they are getting better and I think this is just a way to move to that next chapter.”

Day recognized crisis management and mental health response is going to be very different from event to event.

“Nobody is going to experience the exact same thing we did but if they have something that’s at all similar, here are some of the things we learned and some of the things we went through,” Day said. “We were absolutely not looking for people to congratulate us on how we did things. We really wanted to help others who are in similar positions as ourselves to learn from what we went through.

The conference continues through Sunday.

For other Discover Moose Jaw stories on the Broncos' tragedy, please see the following: 

Moose Jaw Joins In Support For Broncos

Warriors react to Humboldt Bus Tragedy

Hockey Serves As Distraction From Tragedy

Thomas' Number Heads To Rafters

Thomas Remembered With Benefit Game