Joint Potter Group and Emergency Services Exercise puts Safety First
The Potter Group’s COMAH accredited distribution centre in Droitwich, Worcestershire, recently completed a combined one-day exercise with local Emergency Services to help all parties test their safety and emergency management procedures. Carried out jointly with the West Mercia Local Resilience Forum - which includes the Fire Service, Police, Medical Services and Local Authorities – the exercise was designed to meet COMAH requirements and The Potter Group’s procedures, and to assess the various Emergency Planning Department’s plans and training. In addition the exercise provided an excellent dry run for the procedures in place for tackling a major incident anywhere in the county.
As such events are fortunately extremely rare – and the Potter Group (www.pottergroup.co.uk) has been handling chemicals and hazardous materials on site for more than 20 years without incident - the exercise gave all involved valuable practice in dealing with a chemical fire, handling feigned injuries, reassuring the public and testing communications procedures between the various organisations.
Potter Group management wrote to all local residents well in advance advising them that the exercise was going to take place – as required under COMAH regulations – so that there would be no cause for alarm when fire engines and other local services arrived on the scene. A local resident representative was invited to attend to provide additional reassurance to those living nearby.
Commenting on the value of the exercise, Steve McCarthy, general manager of The Potter Group’s Droitwich centre, said: “The safety of our staff and local residents is always our first priority and we were only too happy to work with the local emergency services and other partners to practice all our emergency procedures.
As a COMAH (Control of Major Accidents and Hazards) location, we have to put our procedures to the test, so that we know what to do and how to work with all the emergency services in the case of an incident.
The exercise was very realistic and provided an excellent training day for all our staff. It helped us to see how our procedures stood up in a ‘live’ situation and the best way to co-operate and communicate with the various services should a real emergency arise.”
Nick Riding, Head of Emergency Planning for Worcestershire County Council, co-ordinated the exercise between The Potter Group and the eight local bodies included in the Resilience Forum. He confirmed that feedback from all parties had been positive and that they had identified a number of steps to improve procedures still further.
“All the public services involved and The Potter Group have policies and procedures in place to deal quickly and effectively with emergencies, as required by law and various standards. Nevertheless, putting them to the test in this way to make sure they are fit for purpose helps newer members of the team to experience what a real emergency may be like, helps to ensure that everyone is familiar with their respective roles and to see how they fit into the bigger picture.
Following the exercise we invited all parties to attend a debrief meeting to gather views and recommendations that could be used to further improve our ability to respond to a real incident.
It was clear from the day that even during a test, the nature of the incident and circumstances could change in seconds. For example a change in wind could take smoke and fumes in a different direction, and the number, type of injuries and treatment required will constantly vary. As a result all parties emphasized the need to keep their colleagues informed of developments throughout the incident, to ensure that the right decisions can be made without delay.
Participants who had visited the Potter Group beforehand confirmed how it had helped to know the geography of the site and where materials were stored. As a result we decided we should make sure that up-to-date site plans of all three COMAH sites in the county should be held centrally for use in an emergency.
The Group also believed that while The Potter Group had met COMAH requirements by notifying residents living within a kilometer of the site, it might be wise to extend coverage to all other residents in the village.
Finally we agreed that an annual review and training day for all such locations would help all involved understand their roles, how they could work together and instill a positive sense of teamwork that could help save lives and protect the public should a real incident occur.”
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