- All emergency services involved in emergency exercise at Airport
- Incident held as part of a training programme designed to improve the way emergency services work together
- See a picture gallery from the incident below
- See pictures and videos from previous emergency exercises
THE Island’s emergency services were put to the test yesterday as they simulated a major incident at the Airport that involved a fuel tanker crashing into a bus full of passengers.
The exercise, which involved staff from the Fire and Rescue Service, the Airport fire crew, the States police and paramedics, marked the culmination of a training programme designed to improve the way emergency services work together.
Since the start of the year 139 commanders and control room staff across all the emergency services, including the Coastguard – who were not involved in this exercise – have taken part in a Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) training programme.
The national scheme aims to improve the communication and co-ordination between emergency personnel when faced with a major incident.
Paul Brown, deputy chief fire officer who was working during the Gas Place fire in 2010, said that although the outcome of that situation was ‘textbook’, the training would have made it easier for commanders on the day.
And the adaptability of those involved in the training exercise was tested when the Airport crew had to leave the scenario to deal with a potential real-life emergency as a private aircraft was coming into land with only one engine running.
The aircraft landed safely and both passengers were unharmed.
Mr Brown said that the focus of the exercise was to test the commanders and not the crews, and a member of the JESIP training team in the UK was on hand to oversee the exercise.
‘In the scene we have bronze commanders on the ground who come together – they must get eye to eye and they must communicate effectively.
‘But over at the Fire and Rescue Service station silver commanders will meet.
‘Bronze commanders work on how to get things done.
‘The silver commanders do tactical – what needs to be done.
‘What we have in this situation is a fuel tanker that has crashed into a busload of people who have just disembarked an aircraft.
‘There will be some injuries and possibly some fatalities.’
He added that the JESIP training has allowed emergency crews to develop a single way of communicating and dealing with scenarios.
‘We used to all have our own decision-making models – effectively doing the same thing – but now we have one model and it simplifies it.’
IN April, a major emergency exercise which involved at least three ‘deaths’, multiple casualties and a hostage situation was held.
The police, Fire and Rescue Service, Ambulance and Coastguard took part in the drill, codenamed Operation Sunsplash, which was designed to test their communications during a major incident.
The scenarios, which were held across the Island and took officers six months to plan, involved a total of 16 actors who played the parts of casualties and hostages.
The script, drawn up by the States police’s emergency planning team, involved an Islander losing his job at a marine fabrication factory based at La Collette and seeking retribution against his former employer.
It got under way at about 10 am when two ‘bodies’ were found in the car park opposite Les Fontaines Tavern in St John.
The gunman was said to have shot them when he was disturbed while loading his weapons.
The scenario then involved the ‘killer’ moving to an area at the top of Bouley Bay Hill, where he confronted his former boss and shot her.
At about 11.30 am he made his way to La Collette and, according to the script, drove his car into the side of a warehouse in Route de Veulle, where he used to work.
Following another shoot-out, more casualties were reported before the gunman fled to La Collette yacht basin, where a hostage situation arose.
Police negotiators were called in but the exercise ended when an officer took the decision to shoot him after he had drawn his weapon.
In 2005 a simulated major emergency chemical terrorist attack on Cyril le Marquand House took place. It involved the Police, Fire Service. Ambulance crews, doctors and volunteers.
