Incident Report

Subject:              JOIFF member ESSO Fawley involved in Cross Border Exercise in Hampshire

Date of Email reporting Incident:   Fri 22/02/2008

Report Detail:

JOIFF member ESSO Fawley the largest refinery in the UK along with fire and rescue crews, from five counties in southern England joined together in a large scale mutual aid exercise. Along with the ESSO Fire & Rescue Group (FRG) , crews from Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Surrey and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Services took part in rehearsing the response to a large scale incident. 

JOIFF member Terry Smith Process Coordinator for the ESSO FRG who was involved in the planning and management of the event stated: " It was a well planned and coordinated exercise which demonstrates that industry and municipal fire services can work together successfully.   This was a very successful operation and an excellent example of mutual aid in action"

Exercise scenario

The purpose of the exercise, held in Hampshire, on 4 November, was to practice and test new procedures for the supply and re-use of fire fighting water during a major fire incident, using High Volume Pumps (HVPs).
Testing the practical procedures allowed the region’s emergency services to work together with the Esso Fawley fire response teams, to manage the consequences of a major incident as a fully cohesive force.
In total the exercise used 470,000 litres of water, covering an area of two-and-a-half square miles. The water used was a mixture of salt and fresh water from the refinery’s coolant supply.

HVP airlift

In liaison with the RAF, a HVP was airlifted as part of the exercise, to test procedures for placing equipment in a location difficult to access by normal means.

Exercise planning

Chas McGill, watch manager at Hardley Fire Station, and event coordinator, said, “Planning for this exercise begin in January 2007, and went really well on the day. It was a massive logistical project and could not have been possible without the co-operation of all five fire and rescue services, along with the staff of Esso Fawley. This successful exercise has taught us a lot about our capability to cope with a large scale incident, and has also demonstrated the importance of partnership working.”

HVPs in Hampshire

Hampshire is the only fire and rescue service in the UK to staff the HVPs using crews from retained stations exclusively. Hampshire’s HVP was used most recently at flooding incidents in South Yorkshire and Gloucestershire.

New Dimension display

Hampshire FRS hosted a display of specialist New Dimension equipment, drawn from the nine fire and rescue services in the south east, later in November. Nearly 100 representatives from different agencies attended the one day event at Hawley Lake, which was made available to the South East Regional Resilience Group by the Ministry of Defence.
The display was designed to spread knowledge of New Dimension assets among key stakeholders in the south east, including the police, fire and rescue services, ambulance service, strategic health authorities, emergency planning officers, the Health Protection Agency and the military.

New equipment

Items on show came from Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Services, and included:

• High Volume Pumping (HVP) equipment
• Mass decontamination units
• Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) kit
• Detection, Identification and Monitoring (DIM) facilities 

New water rescue equipment being used by West Sussex FRS was also on display.  Malcolm Pinchin, South East Regional Fire and Resilience Co-ordinator, who helped to organise the day, said: “With the New Dimension programme, the Fire and Rescue Service is now better equipped to respond to large-scale incidents than it has ever been. We hope those who attended the event found it enlightening and that it will assist them in further project planning.”

Additional Documentation: