WATCH: Explosion, smoke and casualties for major incident exercise at Historic Dockyard

Clinical Staff from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, South Central Ambulance Service and Enhanced Care Services, alongside responders from Hampshire Police and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue, simulated an incident where all emergency services worked together to respond, triage and treat multiple casualties at night. Civilian responders worked alongside military personnel to test multi-agency working under pressure.  

 The exercise evolved in real-time and featured an explosion, smoke and up to 25 casualties with a variety of blast injuries and ailments ranging from critical to mild, testing the teams’ response to a major incident and complex decision making under intense pressure. It also allowed them to evaluate the speed and effectiveness of multi-agency coordination and identify areas for improvement and reinforce best practices.  

The blue lights, sirens and helicopter flying overhead were all brought to life by actors who were brought in to play the role of casualties and bystanders. Approximately 60 crew members were involved on the night, taking up a variety of roles over the course of the two-hour simulation.   

Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine, Dr Chris Hill, said: “This was an excellent opportunity to test our ability to provide life saving care to a significant number of patients and put into practice the lessons from recent real incidents in the UK. We are always searching for new ways to be even more effective should the worst happen in our region and the exercise certainly tested our crews to the limit.” 

Watch Manager Jamie Kelly, Southsea Fire Station, said: “To make sure we are able to respond to incidents effectively and make life safer, our firefighters maintain their skills by testing themselves through realistic training scenarios. 

“We regularly join partners for training exercises as it helps replicate the real-life situations we can find ourselves in, working together to save lives. This is a great opportunity for our teams to familiarise themselves with an important site in our area and build upon our excellent relationships with our partner agencies.” 

For more information visit www.hiowaa.org