The Shaunavon and District Fire & Rescue recently announced they've hired two local residents as their new Emergency Measures Coordinators (EMO).

Earlier this week Shaunavon residents Taneesha Adams and Sarah Nicols were named to the position that's responsible for emergency management in the town of Shaunavon and four surrounding R.M.'s (Grassy Creek, Wise Creek, Bone Creek, and Arlington).

Tara Fritz, the recording secretary for the Shaunavon and District Fire & Rescue and EMO Committee, said they're grateful to see multiple people put their names forth for the job.

"We did put a call out and we received two people from the health authority that were of interest in helping the communities establish and upgrade our plan into another format," she said.

Nicols is a nurse practitioner and Adams is a licensed practical nurse and they will be replacing former EMO Sonja Lidfors who served in that position for 'some length of time' and is stepping away from the job.

"On behalf of the Shaunavon and District Fire & Rescue and EMO Committee I would like to recognize her years of service that she's comitted," Fritz said. "Sonja was committed to ensuring that our communities were safe."

According to Fritz the EMO Committee has given direction to move towards an 'incident command format for EMO plans for the communities'.

"Sara Nichol is one of our EMO coordinators along with Taneesha Adams and they're going to be looking at our plan and filling positions within our plan," she said. "We're going to be looking for emergency operation centre staff, so that will be the director, media relations, and a multitude of positions that are available that we're looking for volunteers."

The role the two new EMOs will be tasked to fill a roster including a shelter supervisor, a finance section chief, a logistics section chief, a planning section chief, a liaison officer, an emergency care for residents position, a risk management director, and an information officer.