Gallery: Emergency fire drill at Jersey Hospital

Firefighters and staff from the Ambulance Service and Hospital took part in the simulated exercise, during which a ‘fire’ broke out in a kitchen close to Robin Ward, which served as an adult orthopaedic ward for the purposes of the drill.

Volunteers from the emergency services acted as patients, among them one in a plaster cast and another suffering from dementia.

The aim of the exercise, which was named Operation Seawood, was to test the ability of the emergency services to handle a major incident.

A total of 11 non-walking patients and one visitor were evacuated from the ward, which was filled with smoke to mimic conditions of a real fire.

Emergency exercise with simulated fire, involving hospital staff and firefighters

Jason Hamon, operations manager at the Ambulance Service and director of the exercise, said: ‘The evacuation was performed in a timely manner. It was carried out by members of ward staff, porters and Fire Service and Ambulance Service staff.

‘All the patients were evacuated safely, and the feedback from the patients was that they felt safe.’

Mr Hamon said that the aim of the exercise was to practise the drills and measures that the emergency services have in place.

‘As with any exercise there is always going to be learning to come out of it,’ he said. ‘Exercises like these are really important. They test all levels of communication.’

Mr Hamon said that they were now due to discuss information from last night’s drill during a debrief today and that they would use it to help shape a tabletop exercise – where emergency services go through a simulated emergency situation around a table – due to be held next week.

The exercise started at 6.30 pm and finished at around 8.40 pm. Traffic in Gloucester Street was reduced to a single lane for the exercise.

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