When the city of Colorado Springs conducted three wildfire preparedness drills in hillside neighborhoods last year, the exercises exposed weaknesses in the system, including faulty phone connections and concerns over escape routes.

“I hope the city is prepared,” wrote a Mountain Shadows resident who participated in an evacuation drill in June 2011, a year before the Waldo Canyon fire blew into the city and destroyed 346 homes and killed two people.

The fire was the most destructive in state history, and an after-action report detailing what worked and what didn’t, in terms of firefighting, evacuations and other matters, is in progress.

Last year’s evacuation drills provided valuable lessons before the real disaster struck, said Bret Waters, manager of the city’s Office of Emergency Management Division.

The city held evacuation drills in Rockrimmon, Mountain Shadows and Broadmoor Bluffs on April 30, June 1 and Oct. 1, respectively.

Participants reported communication problems and advised the city to test the phone systems more frequently.

“I never received a call,” a Rockrimmon resident reported in a citizen survey after the drill.

“Cell phone recently registered but didn’t ring,” a Mountain Shadows resident reported in a different survey.

During the Waldo Canyon fire, the emergency notification system did in fact prove troublesome. Thousands of calls failed to go through June 26, the day the wildfire roared into the city.

The evacuation drills taught first responders to reach out to people through various forms of communication.

“Based on citizen feedback and our own observations, it was confirmed that contacting citizens during an evacuation must use many avenues and not just rely on the emergency phone notification system,” Waters said in an email to The Gazette.

“Consequently, during the Waldo Canyon Fire, evacuations utilized such methods as media coverage, press conferences, police car bull horn announcements, door-to-door notifications and the use of the El Paso-Teller County 911 Authority’s emergency notification system,” he said.

During the evacuation drills, participants said escape route information given over the phone was “poor,” “confusing” and “unnecessary.”

Waters said officials gave escape route information to determine how well directions were followed by citizens, to test evacuation planning for responders and also to direct citizens to a debriefing area.

“During the debriefings and through feedback forms we learned that giving too many instructions and giving lengthy evacuation routes on the emergency notification call was not productive and appeared to be confusing,” Waters said.

“Consequently, we kept the emergency notifications to evacuate during the Waldo Canyon Fire short and simple and relied on police officers to handle traffic control and manage traffic control points during the evacuations,” he said.

Waters said the drills were “very effective” for participants as well as for first responders. The drill in Mountain Shadows involved 55 families, said Francine Hansen, president of the Mountain Shadows Community Association. In Broadmoor Bluffs, 26 households participated, and 42 households participated in the Rockrimmon exercise.

Participants of the smaller scale evacuation drills said a bigger exercise would have been more effective.

“There wasn’t any panic one might expect in a real situation,” a Rockrimmon resident reported.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated during the worst of the Waldo Canyon fire, creating panic and causing traffic gridlock.

Waters said the city can’t make participation in evacuation drills mandatory.

“But we feel it is our obligation to hold these drills,” he said, adding that the city will continue to do them.

“We believe the drills and exercises conducted led to a positive outcome in the Waldo Canyon Fire,” he said.

—Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623Twitter @danieljchaconFacebook Daniel Chacon