Doncaster fire crews carry out huge emergency training exercise at Doncaster depot

Doncaster Free Press

Crews took part in a simulation of a blaze at a Doncaster depot in readiness for the real thing

Transcript

00:00We're here at DHL in Tickhill this afternoon for a coma exercise which is an opportunity

00:27for us to test out the coma plan that this site has not only with the staff on site but

00:32also with our partner agencies.

00:34So today we've got the police, we've got Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Doncaster Council, we've

00:39brought our decontamination unit for firefighter decontamination and we've got six fire engines

00:45here today to take part in this incident.

00:47So this exercise is going to consist of an accident within the warehouse which has led

00:52to a spillage of chemicals and a fire.

00:54So we're going to be committing our crews into this building not only to tackle the

00:58fire but also to rescue any persons that might be unaccounted for.

01:03This will include searching and rescuing as well as firefighting.

01:06We'll then be liaising with our partner agencies because obviously any fire will give off a

01:11smoke plume and for this incident the smoke plume is going to be drifting over the local

01:15village which will also need involvement to make sure that the people in that village are

01:19safe.

01:20So within the warehouse we're going to have two casualties, one has got a leg injury and

01:24the other one has got burns and smoke inhalation.

01:26We're also going to have another casualty, in this case we'll actually be using a dummy

01:31for that, which will be an individual who's had a medical episode which has led to this

01:36incident happening in the first place.

01:37Further on in the incident our control room will receive telephone calls, what we call fire

01:43survival guidance calls from another two members of staff who have become lost in the smoke-laden

01:48area and we'll then be sending another crew in to rescue them.

01:53The reason why we do these kind of exercises is not only to pre-plan so that we're ready

01:57for it should anything happen but it also gives us an opportunity to work closely with

02:02our partner agencies such as Yorkshire Ambulance and the Police.

02:05Should this have been a real incident there would probably have been more resources coming

02:09to this kind of scene, but obviously we still have to keep our emergency response for the

02:13rest of the county while we are doing this training, so we've just had the appliances

02:17that had today.

02:18So my team handle the force emergency plans but we're also responsible for the force's

02:24multi-agency response.

02:26My duties here is to essentially attend what's known as a forward command point and link in

02:31with the ground commander for fire, the ground commander for ambulance and to conduct a multi-agency

02:38assessment of the incident that we're dealing with in this exercise today.

02:43All agencies have got an understanding of what's happening, what the casualties are, hazards etc.

02:50in line with what's outlining the Jessic principles.

02:54I'm now known as the RONS commander or the operational commander, other officers will be working

02:59on the cordon, police chain of command will have an incident commander in the control

03:03room, we'll have the feeding information back.

03:06Should then that command structure need to escalate, then we can get more officers down

03:09on scene if we need to and tailor the police response.

03:12We're a category one responder under civil contingency is the same as the other agencies that are here

03:21today at the incident.

03:22We've been called and our role will be to support the blue light services in the response

03:27of this incident. We'll be supporting police with some road closures and we've also been

03:33asked if our pollution control team at the council can provide some support in monitoring the air

03:37quality due to the smoke from the fire and we'll remain on scene until the fire and the incident

03:45is concluded and deal with any requests that partner agencies might have of the local authority.

03:50I'm out.

04:00I'm out.

04:02I'm out.

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