Site expertise key to exercise success

Foreman Nathan Smith played a keyrole in an emergency services exercise at Bulls Lodge quarry in Chelmsford.

 Chargehand Luke Wade and plant operator Neil Cunningham also took part in the practice which saw Essex Fire and Rescue join forces with the Hazardous Area Response Team paramedics, St John Ambulance and the police.

 Urban Search and Rescue, part of the fire service, also attended.

 “The scenario involved an explosion in the quarry process plant,” said unit manager Alex Smiles. “The emergency services had to battle the resultant fire and find four casualties in the building itself and one in a tunnel which houses a conveyor to feed the plant with raw material.

 “The emergency services had to use an escape tunnel to access and extract the injured person. Nathan’s knowledge of the machinery was critical to the services being able to locate the victim.”

 Alex said the exercise was very useful.

 “It enabled us to test the site emergency procedures and amend where required,” he said. “Having site personnel provide knowledge of the machinery within the smoke-filled building was crucial to the rescue services finding and extracting the casualty.

 “The services were able to test their equipment in challenging conditions and were very grateful, wanting to use the site again.”

 Luke said: “It is good to know how hard they would work to save you if anything happened. ”