Comments on: Exercise Orion: Earthquake in Hampshire Simulation

By: connor

connor — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:01:20 +0000

I’m just dropping my opinion, I won’t be back to retrieve it, you can keep it.
I was at the Fort Widley site on the 7th, as a ‘casualty’
at about 0:29 on this video, behind the window in the rubble pile
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-11210738
basically, Katherine, I hear what you’re saying and I like your idea, and I agree, but to some extents it just isn’t feasible: there will always be people who don’t realise that what they see isn’t a real emergency and take up valuable phone lines which are needed for real emergencies. Also, you’ll have noticed the amount of people wearing dust masks in the video: large amounts of dust (I’m talking about a dozen wheely bins filled with the stuff) were dropped from parapets and some pyrotechnics were set off, which left large clouds of smoke and dust on the site for some time: needless to say, that can cause medical problems to people who aren’t wearing the necessary protective equipment. And, the van on fire: live fire and people who don’t know exactly what is going on don’t mix at all.
Although, I think you are also saying that the firefighters were accustomed to the environment, I can assure you they weren’t, Hampshire Fire and Rescue’s Urban Search And Rescue teams spent the best part of 6 months converting the Widley site into a disaster zone, only they knew what it was like before the exercise and they actually ran it: they didn’t take part in the exercise itself. I hope that’s helped you, and I would advise on emailing somebody from the organizations that ran the exercise, but it’s December now, and I don’t think they’ll be able to help you.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:43:15 +0000

An extremely valid point Katherine to which I have to agree, the more simulated ‘chaos’ the better, because the emergency services would be inundated with calls at the same time as having to deal with the disaster.

By: Katherine Pearson

Katherine Pearson — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:36:30 +0000

I’m glad this exercise isn’t being conducted in a private facility! If a disaster should strike the UK I don’t think it will be considerate and only strike in a private facility. In order for the emergency services to be able to offer the public the best service they can to assist them should, God forbid, a rescue of this scale be needed, the emergency services need to have at least tried the various rescue scenario’s in “the real world”.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:53:31 +0000

Fort Widley and Southampton Airport are among the locations, so not that private!

By: Gareth Howell

Gareth Howell — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:28:46 +0000

I hope this is all being conducted in a private facility then. When a local plan was tested at a local power station there was a “War of the Worlds” type reaction as the emergency services were inundated with calls from the public