Chemical Incident - A Training Exercise
A fictional chemical spill resulting in the contamination of twenty volunteer ‘patients’ was the setting of a training exercise attended by West Midlands Ambulance Service on Sunday 17th July.
Three of the fake casualties (all volunteers) had injuries including burns, deep cuts and a leg fracture sustained by the falling of a chemical drum during forklift work at a warehouse unit within Potter Group’s Logistics’ distribution centre in Droitwich. It led to a white powder (assumed to be a chlorine-based chemical) coating the injured three and a further seventeen who were working in the area at the time.
To make the exercise more real, a make-up artist created wounds, complete with fake blood and latex for the three injured casualties while the “white powder” applied to all twenty was actually non-biological washing up powder!
The exercise was held at Potter Group Logistics which has been handling chemicals and hazardous materials on site for more than 20 years without incident. Its distribution centre in Droitwich is fully equipped and COMAH (Control of Major Accidents and Hazards) accredited for handling chemicals, pharmaceuticals and hazardous products, as well as for general product warehousing and distribution.
As a COMAH location, Potter Group Logistics has to put its procedures to the test, so that it knows what to do and how to work with all the emergency services in the case of an incident. In turn, it provided an opportunity for the emergency services to practice their response to a serious incident in a safe environment.
West Midlands Ambulance Service attended, sending a number of staff and managers to both take part in the exercise and observe it. The ambulance service’s Trust’s Hazardous Area Response team also attended, tending (dressed in chemical suits) to patients and erect the Trust’s mobile decontamination unit; a large marquee in which people affected by a chemical contamination are washed down. It stood alongside those of Hereford and Worcester Fire Service; the first time decontamination units from both services have been used together.
Kevin Morrey, West Midland Ambulance Service’s Emergency Preparedness Manager said: “It’s about working together. This was the first time Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service has seen and worked with our mobile decontamination unit so this has been a big learning curve for both emergency services. Taking part in training exercises like this helps both us and the fire service in our resilience. Every time we do such an exercise, it’s a step along the way to achieving that efficiency and readiness should the real thing happen.”
Steve McCarthy General Manager at the Droitwich Distribution Centre commented:
“The safety of our staff, customers and local residents is our first priority, so we are always happy to work with the local emergency services to make sure we are prepared for any eventuality.
The West Midlands Ambulance Services created a very realistic emergency scenario that put us all to the test and provided an excellent training session for all our staff. Such a situation is very rare so it was particularly useful to turn theory into practice and for everyone to know how to react and deal with a real live emergency.”
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