Multi-agency exercise in Nottingham
An exercise to test how several agencies would respond to a major chemical incident happening in Nottingham will be staged in the city centre this Wednesday (14 March).
The exercise will test detailed plans for how the emergency services, city council, the NHS Health Community, Nottingham University Hospitals and other agencies would work together in the event of a chemical incident affecting a number of people.
The exercise will involve approximately 50 volunteers acting as 'casualties' who require evacuation from the National Ice Centre after coming into contact with an unknown chemical. They will undergo rescue and triage and any interim decontamination required before being escorted by emergency personnel to the City Link area just off London Road where they’ll undergo mass decontamination. The 'survivors' will then be taken to a Survivor Reception Centre set up at the Portland Leisure Centre where their welfare needs will be assessed and resolved.
Bill Duffy, Exercise Director and Emergency Planning Officer for Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We have a statutory duty to work together to prepare detailed plans for tackling such an incident and for testing those plans on a regular basis. Wednesday’s exercise will provide several agencies with the opportunity to ensure those plans are fit for purpose.
“We have tried hard to keep disruption to pedestrians and traffic flows to a minimum but inevitably there will be some inconvenience caused.”
The exercise will last from 9.30am until 12.30 pm, during which time one lane of the A6008 Bellar Gate to Belward Street outside the National Ice Centre will be closed, along with roads surrounding the City Link area (behind the BBC building on London Road). Roads elsewhere in the city will be unaffected.
