Essay on the Major Emergency Scenario Taken Part In

Several mock emergencies were conducted in the classroom in readiness for a serious exercise, an emergency exercise. Various groups were formed in anticipation for the emergency. The groups comprised of the police, National Health Service, and the Fire and Rescue Service. I joined Fire and Rescue team, the reason being that I had gained some experience with Cambridgeshire County Council and I wanted to know what was involved in handling emergencies. Carrying out my research on the Local Fire Service and being part of the Fire and Rescue Service group made me familiarize well with the authorities at the local level. One of the group members had experience in the Fire Service, so my feeling was like the wide experience we had in the group helped strengthened the team. Every group member had knowledge in a particular zone meaning anyone could venture forward and sieve the impact of their service well-nigh the major incident. The group utilized government materials, for example, establishment and demonstrations of parliament to unwind how our specific slipperiness goody works plane with a noteworthy crisis.

The major scenario we had been preparing for involved two cargo trains, where one was conveying chlorine gas. The two trains crashed at the Peterborough station. Immediately upon collision, the chlorine gas started to spill onto the tracks and eventually spread into the environment (Brown, 2016). Considering the nature of Chlorine, a suspicion that chlorine might form a cloud arose and then the fear of its effects upon reaching Peterborough town. There were fears of yet another event said to have also occurred in a car park close to Peterborough train station. The news of this new event took around fifteen minutes to reach all the concerned authorities and to be linked to the chlorine leakage from the major incidence that had taken place at the train station. Looking back at the preparations we had conducted in the classroom, I realized the scenarios we practiced involved only a single event. Since this was a double incidence, I realized my group was not aware that one incidence could spread to the whole neighborhood. One of the areas that caused confusion was the way the number casualties at the car park were higher than at the scene of the train crash. The reason being that the cargo trains were not carrying any passengers.

All protocol observed it was our group, the Fire and Rescue Service that first stepped into the scene of the scenario. Two fire engines were initially directed to the scene by the Fire Service. The number of fire engines applied was increased to eight due to the rise in the casualtys number as a result of the other incident at the car park. Individuals from the service with breathing instruments stayed on train crash scene to rescue and to decontaminate infected individuals. Water was erected above the train in a curtain like a mane to dissolve the gas cloud and prevent it from spreading to Peterborough town (Brown, 2016). The same strategy was used near a car park.

Before the incidence, I helped my group assess the judgments to make regarding the necessary instruments to be applied to the incidence. Therefore, I earned the membership to the Gold Command. My roles here were to meet with ministers to enlighten them of the progress of the Fire Service team. We also had the opportunity to answer some of the questions posted by these ministers regarding the incidence. We were also blessed with the opportunity to ask for whatever we needed to successfully tackle the incident. The person mandated with the supervision of the progress of the Fire Service was the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service manager Phil Hill (Hill, 2017). The other role I had as a member of the command was to note down key points discussed at the cabinet office meeting room. The meeting forms part of the emergency response and is conducted monitor the progress of the Fire Service Operation during an emergency (Mason, 2012).

The media coming to the scene of the event was one of the things we anticipated. We knew they would ask questions, so we prepared well for their visitation. Personally, I had prepared very good notes that were to bail me out of the tough questions reporters were to ask. So I was very calm. It was also protocoled that the media be informed with the events around the incident. The challenging part was to give the important media news but keeping the sensitive part of the information. This had to be done to reassure the public that everything was being taken care out and nothing is ever going out of the control of the Fire Service. At first, the news received was that an accident had occurred involving two cargo trains. Unfortunately, one had chlorine gas. Apart from this, another incidence also took place at a car park believed to be in the same area as the major accident. A total of fifteen casualties were involved.

Upon receiving all the data, our group came up with a guideline on the nature of machines to convey to the scene of the accident. We, as a team, placed a noteworthy episode on hold. Authorities in charge had however spoken about the accident. A serious threat to all my group members was the possibility of a chlorine gas leaking from the scene of the accident towards Peterborough town (Brown, 2016). Another aspect was the twist that occurred on that day which was a north westerly twist self-glorification towards the southeast, the heading of town. Luckily, no significant gas leakage was recorded after my team had arrived at the scene of the accident.

As members of the Command team, we set up an open strategy to follow during the major event. We posted a Command Centre to allow direct liaises with those involved in firefighting at the scene. We received requests from The Ambulance Service who became overwhelmed by the casualties at the scene. So we had to assist in managing a portion of the losses at the car park. The Ambulance Service depended on us for this as we had both breathing and the decontamination kits. One precaution we made was ensuring electric power was turned off before dispatching the firefighters. The train station where the incidence was renowned as a central rail hub. The venue where the event occurred is a major hub for trains; there was a need to speed up operations to cut down on major losses that were likely to occur as a result of the crash. A very wonderful illustration of JESIP operation was where the Ambulance Service asked our fire rescue team to help them rescue the casualties also where the police closed down roads to manage the crowd and to allow for access to the fire apparatus. Controlling civilians is crucial to the Fire and Rescue Service as it anticipates additional accidents and also helps prevent people from getting into the location of the event. At the point when the three emergency teams meet up to help each other, they can finish an undertaking of settling emergency scenarios efficiently.

Looking at the nature of the incident, I can confidently confess that this was a job for the Fire Service team. First of all, you look at the kind of the vehicles that were involved, the nature of the crash itself, the presence of a toxic gas at the scene of occurrence, and the location was the accident occurred, the conclusion draws you near to this team. The presence of an ambulance was helpful. It provided assistance to our group with the removal of casualties from the scenes of the two accidents. Also, they assisted our team with the decontamination of people who were around the site of the two accidents. Another strategy that was also applied by the fire rescue was enlightening the public of what had happened in social media. Also, the public was taught on safety procedures to carry out when exposed to the poisonous gas to escape the harmful effects of the gas. The social network was also used to update the public on the sequence of events that were taking place at the scene of the accident. People who were at a distance of one kilometer square from the accident scene were advised to remain within their areas of residence with any openings shut down; these include all doors and windows. The reason behind this is that when we compare chlorine gas with air, we find that chlorine is heavier than air. Therefore, it usually stays low except when it is disturbed by flowing air. Therefore, the best safety option was to advise everyone to migrate to the first floor. After our team had been notified, there was a draft written. The draft was a METHANE report. This report is quite imperative as well as renowned for conveying important accident news between control rooms as well as the various services in the same. All administrations in that happened to operate in the past made the use of similar types of passing on data, yet JESIP presented the utilization of a worldwide framework that implies that a chip can be used to pass data, simple, and reliable way. It therefore, guarantees all administrations know well-nigh correlated data identifying with the occurrence. Each warship reacting to the episode will finish their METHANE report and offer that with other administrations. A using has likewise been made enabling people to fill in a METHANE require a worth of their handheld gadgets. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and JESIP are the central shit of enactment. I discovered it took half a month of ridicule situations with a specific end goal to pick up a comprehension of how these eventual actualized despite a noteworthy crisis.

Our group was organized into the following commands; bronze, silver and finally gold. Gold assumed the role of strategic command; silver was allocated the role of tactical command while bronze was assigned the role of operational command that is, in charge of operations. This organized plan outlines ways of conveying responses that are tactical, operational and strategy oriented to a circumstance of occurrence (www.app.college.police.uk, 09/05/17). The individual operating as a gold leader was mandated with conveying various units and instruments to the place of the accident and being in charge of the overall process. The individual exercising silver command was mandated with maintaining public order and shielding people from getting into the scene of the event. I was in gold command where I was assigned the responsibility of keeping note of the event and ensuring everything went smoothly with the aim of putting the incidence under control. I was also assigned the duty of discussing the flow of events with the minister at a meeting (COBRA) and answer any queries that came up (Mason, 2012). It is fundamental to point out that a significant setback we encountered as the Fire Rescue team in the scenario was identifying the roads that needed to be closed down by the police to allow easy entry and exit from the event scene. The other area that we faced a challenge was on deciphering the right place to launch the decontamination process. Just to the advantage of the fire rescue team, the atmosphere remained calm, and everything went smoothly as planned. The operation took several hours.

Proper preparation for the event by all the emergency services made it possible for various agencies to get involved. The implication was that impacts and dangers were limited and a speedy recuperation from the episode was accomplished.

References

Brown, A. (2016). Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Local Resilience Forum Community Risk Register. 3rd ed. Cambridgeshire: Online. 8.

Hill, P. Station Manager, Service Resilience Co-ordinator, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. 2017.

Mason, C. (2012). London 2012: What Exactly is a Cobra Meeting? Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18958032. Last accessed 07/05/17.

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