Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Culdrose, Helston at 08/09/2006 10:30

A major training exercise was held at Culdrose on Friday 8 September to test the capabilities of the emergency services in the County.

Agencies taking part and observing included Cornwall County Fire Brigade, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, Westcountry Ambulance, Emergency Planning and the Environment Agency.

More than 100 emergency services personnel attended the mock ‘chemical incident’. Fifty casualties were ‘contaminated’ and specialist equipment was used to ‘wash down’ the victims and decontaminate them.

The aim of the exercise was to provide multi-agency training to the response of a chemical incident and to test the joint multi-agency response plan:

“We wanted members of the emergency services to be able to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to effectively control mass decontamination” said Sub Officer Ray Dawe, Cornwall County Fire Brigade

A range of vehicles attended including the New Dimension equipment supplied to Fire and Rescue Services across the Country following 9/11.
Personnel were able to test and familiarise themselves with this specialist emergency equipment.