Tuesday 27 May
10.30hrs
Fire officers from Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Avon Fire
& Rescue Services will have the opportunity to see how the
region could respond to a major incident, during a training
exercise taking place near Cheddar this week.
Members of Avon Fire & Rescue Service’s (AF&RS) Urban
Search and Rescue (USAR) team will be demonstrating their equipment
and techniques to colleagues at a disused quarry.
Urban Search and Rescue forms part of the Government’s National
Resilience programme which provides the fire and rescue service
with the capability to respond to major emergencies involving
chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events,
search and rescue, major flooding incidents and major transport
incidents.
Although the team is based in Avon, it is available to respond
to incidents in neighbouring fire and rescue services and even
nationally.
The USAR team has five large ‘modules’, transported on lorries,
which carry specialist equipment to deal with a range of
eventualities. Among the equipment carried are listening devices
and cameras, heavy cutting and breaking tools to access buildings
as well as propping and shoring equipment.
Wednesday’s exercise will be a chance for officers from Avon,
Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to increase their awareness of the
capability of the new team. During the day members of AF&RS’s
USAR team will be conducting exercises involving breaking and
breaching concrete walls, hot cutting, chainsaws and rescue saws,
line access and casualty extrication, and technical
searches.