Civil Contingencies - Training Events
Radsafe Training
In the following section we outline some of the training events we conduct:
Radsafe Training
On 230910 Environmental Health Officers and Emergency Incident Officers from the Council attended Radsafe course at Lancaster Town Hall, along with police, fire and ambulance officers. The course, run by the Health Protection Agency, covered the emergency response to transport accidents involving radiation and comprised lectures, practical demonstrations and table top exercises.
Rest Centre Training
All over Lancashire suitable buildings have been identified to be opened as Rest Centres where people can go if they need to evacuate their homes or other buildings during an emergency.
On Tuesday 210409 a Rest Centre training event took place at Salt Ayre Sports Centre for the benefit of City Council officers, the County Council Emergency Response Team from Adult Services and members of the voluntary agencies who would all be expected to work together when a Rest Centre is opened.
There were presentations from Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire County Council Emergency Planning, Lancaster City Council and Lancashire Adult Services. Chris Hollis, a manager at Salt Ayre Sports Centre spoke about his experiences acting as a Facilities Manager during a live exercise at the centre in late 2007.
The participants the took part in a table top exercise considering a number of scenarios that may arise when a Rest Centre is opened and the possible responses. In fact, because the Lancashire Rest Centre scheme has been in place for many years and is frequently activated many of the questions posed related to real situations that had occurred elsewhere.
Stephen Metcalfe, one of the City Council's Emergency Incident Officers said after the event "It was a real eye-opener. I learnt a great deal about the roles and responsibilities of the various agencies who come together to serve people who have been displaced from their homes in emergency situations."
National Science & Engineering Week
During National Science and Engineering Week the Environmental Science Department of Lancaster University ran a number of sessions for local schools on the practical application of science to real life situations. Dr. Rob Mackenzie decided to create a number of areas where science could assist with the response to a major incident and the Council’s Civil Contingencies Officer, Mark Bartlett, assisted with devising a scenario and also running the event on 11th March in the laboratory at the University. Two groups of around eighteen 13/14 year old students from various local schools were presented with a scenario of a fire at a local petrol station and then set various tasks to assist the responders. These included actual weather readings, weather forecasting, chemical analysis of samples, map reading and passing messages by both written documents and also using radios.
The groups were kept under pressure for results by further students working with Mark Bartlett in a simulated "Silver Control" facility, as would be established at Lancaster Police Station. The students worked hard on their individual tasks and really seemed to enjoy the experience and to understand how science helps to decide cordon sizes and exclusion areas, to determine the correct fire fighting techniques, to decide whether or not to evacuate an area or advise residents to shelter and to shape longer term planning beyond the immediate response
George, Megan and Nicky from Carnforth High School work with Mark Bartlett in ’Silver Control’ to record and assess the scientific information being received from meteorologists, chemists and cartographers.