This week London’s emergency services are working together in response to a pre-scripted disaster scenario involving a tower block collapsing onto Waterloo station.
Creative commons / Petr Kratochvil
London’s emergency services are rehearsing their response to major disasters and mass casualties in a drill which involves 2,000 volunteers, firemen, police officers and ambulance staff.
The four-day event centres on a disused power station in Dartford. More than 250 experts have piled up several tube carriages all holding potential victims, with some hidden underground.
‘The London Fire Brigade has gone to considerable lengths to make its biggest-ever disaster exercise look and feel realistic”, the BBC reports.
Volunteers are to be covered in fake blood and act as if they have received terrifying injuries. Services will also be tasked with finding and identifying ‘dead’ bodies.
“You can’t get this sort of experience from a text book”, London Fire commissioner Ron Dobson said.
“When disaster strikes families need to be confident that the authorities are doing everything they can to identify their loved ones in a dignified and respectful way, whilst supporting any criminal investigation”, added Chief Constable Debbie Simpson of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Tom Hedley