Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Treliske Hospital, Truro at 06/06/2007 10:00

A joint exercise on Wednesday 6th June tested local emergency services response to a fictional incident involving large numbers of casualties requiring decontamination.

The exercise has been jointly planned by all of the local agencies involved in responding to a major incident in Cornwall and the practical exercise will involve police, ambulance, fire and hospital services.

It will begin with a scene setting presentation at the Knowledge Spa at which the fictional incident will unfold through the use of real time reports and photograph presentation. The exercise will then move to the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s accident and emergency unit where the Fire Service will put their mass casualty decontamination equipment into operation.

Advanced practitioner in critical care and co-ordinator of the exercise at the hospital, Peter Johnson said, “The exercise is an important opportunity to put us through our paces to be prepared should we need to respond to a real incident. Responding to an incident of this nature requires an integrated plan and we need to test how we work together in practice and see if there are things that we could do even better.”
Whilst the potential for a deliberate biological incident in the county is negligible, the possibility of chemical contamination, given that hazardous substances are routinely transported by road and rail and used in industry, is slightly higher. For this reason, all emergency services need to be prepared. Incidents involving contamination require special arrangements to minimise the risk to the public, to emergency services staff and facilities.

Station Officer Ray Dawe, Cornwall Country Fire Brigade, added, “Fire Service personnel regularly train to deal with incidents of this nature. The ability to practice our skills at an exercise helps us to develop our knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to effectively control mass decontamination. After the ‘scenario setting’ the fire service will be demonstrating its decontamination equipment. The New Dimension equipment was supplied to Fire and Rescue Services across the Country following 9/11.”