UK National Resilience exercise deemed success

Published: 15 March, 2010

Support services company VT Group (VT) successfully supported Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) firefighters and vehicles taking part in the first UK national exercise organised by the National Resilience team. The exercise covered three simultaneous simulated incidents; a major train derailment in Warwickshire and two smaller incidents in London and Merseyside.

135 personnel from eleven fire and rescue services, including Kent and Devon & Somerset, took part in the main exercise in Warwickshire that took in excess of three months to plan. The incident simulated a train derailment involving another train carrying chemicals, requiring all capabilities of the USAR teams including dog handlers, a mass decontamination unit as well as Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) ambulances. The exercise provided key opportunities to test capability, coordination and specialist equipment including hot metal cutting and heavy lifting equipment provided for major transport incidents. It also involved some 35 ‘casualties’.

A team of specialist VT resilience engineers provided ongoing 24-hour fleet management and logistics support to USAR, the mass decontamination equipment on the ground and the search and rescue dog handling vehicles over the event. This included deploying two specialist Iveco daily mobile maintenance vehicles (MMU) to carry out running repairs on the vehicles which ranged from vans to the specialist MAN National Resilience emergency fire appliances, and to ensure repair or replacement of any faulty equipment.

Gary Evans, VT Group’s General Manager, Fire & Resilience said: “This exercise was key to testing the resilience and capability of search and rescue teams across the UK, who will be asked to give assistance. Crucially for our customer they were able to concentrate on their role in the exercise, with our team of resilience engineers on hand to provide 24 hour support for their vehicles and equipment modules – and take onboard the learning points for response to a real life incident.

“The assets are operated by the 49 Fire and Rescue Services in England and Wales, comprising more than 500 vehicles and specialist modules for dealing with major emergencies such as floods, terrorist attacks and urban search and rescue.”

This support forms part of VT’s capability management services provided for the New Dimension fleet of emergency vehicles and equipment modules. VT’s 16-year contract with Firebuy Limited, on behalf of the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG), ensures the National Resilience fleet is available for deployment in the event of major incidents.

Brian Ward, National Resilience Officer designate explained: “The first class support provided by VT played a key part in the success of this exercise. They are an integral part of our operation - their support is critical in ensuring the 24/7 operational capability of our vehicles and equipment. For instance, the exercise required extensive hot metal cutting to reach casualties, using thermal lance rods and Petrogen. VT’s onsite support in replenishing stocks and carrying out immediate repairs ensured equipment performance that in a real life scenario would have resulted in optimum operation.”

Bookmark this

Increasing efficiency – the case for rapid response vehicles
Through effective vehicle conversions, fire services can allocate resource dependent on the task and rationalise their operations. Andy Harris, specialist vehicle sales manager at UK company Bott, explains how.
Fire fighting machines
Remote controlled vehicles have now attended over 50 UK hazardous materials incidents in the last five years, writes QnetiQ Senior Project Engineer and Technical Lead for Project GHOST, Kenneth A Pink.
New nozzle hose solution saves time and manpower during response
Fire brigadier Herbert Fettweis of Duesseldorf, Germany has developed the new ICONOS nozzle hose for safe and cost effective firefighting of waste dump fires, and wildfires. Herbert designed the hose because in his experience valuable manpower was often wasted during these types of incidents, where people were just simply standing somewhere while pouring water down on the same spot.
New rescue pumper for South Australia County Fire Service
Fraser Engineering, based in New Zealand, has recently delivered a new rescue pumper to the South Australia County Fire Service. The vehicle is now operational in Morphett Vale, located in the suburbs of Adelaide, and is based on a CFS Iveco Eurocargo Pumper.
Firefighters urge caution during ‘severe cold weather’
‘We’ve recently heard of people putting heaters and hairdryers in their beds to stay warm and this is a disaster waiting to happen” – Dave Brown, Assistant Commissioner for Operations and Mobilising, London Fire Brigade.

Sign Up

For the latest news and updates from Hemmingfire.

Company Profiles

Angus Fire – global innovation in fire fighting

Angus Fire is a global leader in fire fighting technology with a long history of pioneering innovation. The company occupies a unique world position in the development and manufacture of fire hose, foam concentrates and fire fighting equipment.

Holmatro - Mastering Power

Holmatro Rescue Equipment develops, manufactures, sells and services high-pressure hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical rescue equipment. With a comprehensive dealer network on all continents, manufacturing plants in the Netherlands (head office) and USA, and sales offices in China and UK, we supply our products and services to fire and rescue organizations all over the world.

Dr Sthamer - Hamburg: foam fights fire

Dr Sthamer – Hamburg, has been developing and manufacturing state-of-the art firefighting foams since the 1920’s. Having been founded in 1886 by Dr Richard Sthamer, we are still proudly owned and managed by the Sthamer family. Our base is still at the original site where we started in, on the banks of the Bille River in Hamburg Germany.