Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, along with a variety of partners including the Highways Agency, Edmund Nuttall and Optima undertook a pre-planned exercise recently, aimed at testing the procedures and processes involving a road traffic collision resulting in a small spillage of an unknown chemical (simulated). The exercise took place on the A500 northbound carriageway, in the underpass area, close to Stoke City Centre.
The fire service were testing and demonstrating incident command, road traffic collision management, chemical incident procedures, and effective communication between the range of operational and specialist firefighters involved. Inter-agency communication was also tested through the involvement of Staffordshire Police and members of Edmund Nuttalls at the incident along.
Ralph Matthew, Area Commander for the Stoke on Trent City Area commented: “This exercise provided a professional demonstration of the range of skills and equipment available to the modern Fire and Rescue Service and how we can best employ these to keep not only the road users in Stoke safe but also the rest of the county as this equipment can go to anywhere within the region.” The Firefighter Decontamination Structure (equipment utilised as part of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s commitment to supporting Civil Resilience) was demonstrated, and used for decontaminating firefighters and other staff involved in the incident, as was the new detection, identification and monitoring equipment. This specialised computer can analyse chemicals from a very small sample, and inform firefighters within seconds on the nature of the chemical or substance. This enables a far swifter, safer and more professional response to be made. The Department for Communities and Local Government has funded and equipped fire and rescue services with new equipment to detect, identify and monitor hazardous substances, as part of the new dimensions mass decontamination capability. This equipment provides the Fire Service with the ability to investigate and identify hazardous materials that have been released either accidentally or deliberately.
Observing the exercise were members of thefire and rescue authority, members of staff from the Highways Agency and their managing agents, and members of staff from the Fire and Rescue Service.

Trevor Still, from the Highways Agency commented: “The exercise showed that the new equipment will be a valuable tool in the speedy identification of chemical spillages, which in turn will lead to incidents being cleared more quickly and efficiently. Rehearsing the use of new technology assists the Highways Agency to provide reliable journey times across the network.”