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CBRN Resilience 2009 Conference Report
In early July, in the same week that President Obama and Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev signed an agreement to reduce their countries respective nuclear armories to 1,700 each, the BAPCO Journal attended a conference organized by Defence IQ entitled ‘CBRN Resilience’ (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear) to hear talks from leading emergency services professionals, concerning this niche but highly important area.
Ensuring UK Resilience Through Effective Fire and Rescue Service and Local Government Resolve - Sir Ken Knight
The first speaker of the morning was the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor to the Government, Sir Ken Knight. He spoke about the need to ensure the emergency services have the necessary skills and equipment to be fully prepared to deal with the ongoing threat of terrorism and the CBRN risks inherent in this.
Sir Ken started by noting that the emergency services have, since around 2000, had a lot of good experience at dealing with large scale, one-off events, such as the foot and mount crisis, the fuel strikes, major flooding events and Buncefield. All these varied and unique events have helped provide a basis from which planning and training for CBRN incidents have been set out. Part of this has been the improvement in communication and a more “joined up operational platform” in which the emergency services have got a lot better at working together efficiently, and sharing best practice and information after both real events and training scenarios.
Sir Ken also noted the investment being made by the government in this area, notably the New Dimension project which, since its formation after the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, has received around £300m. This investment has helped to deliver new equipment, training and procedures to the fire and rescue service (FRS) to enhance national capabilities at dealing with CBRN threats. This has also involved the training of firefighters, first in Texas, and now at a purpose built facility at the Fire Service College in Morton Marsh, Gloucestershire, in the preparation for CBRN and USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) scenarios. As Sir Ken noted, the need to train firefighters is paramount to ensuring they are able to respond effectively to incidents as they occur; any CBRN threat that is encountered is likely to be of a large scale and highly complex so it is imperative fire fighters can cope with the situation and have had training that mirrors the risks they could face at such incidents. This again led Sir Ken to underline the importance of best practice and information sharing – to make sure that when the time comes all the emergency services are able to work together efficiently and effectively.
A final point from Sir Ken, on this theme, was the necessity of emergency services using a common language that would cover events, symbols and terminology so there was no risk of miscommunication or confusion at key moments. A question from the floor, after Sir Ken’s talk finished, asked if he believed enough training events were being carried out to keep skills learnt in training sharp. He said they were, saying they were “sufficiently robust and disruptive” to keep people’s training fresh in their minds, and cited an upcoming event in Holland as an example of the ongoing scenario training firefighters were receiving.
Delivery of the Police National CBRN Operational Response Plan - Superintendent John Buttress
The second talk of the morning was delivered by Superintendent John Buttress from the Police National CBRN Centre, a unit dedicated to training and preparing for potential CBRN incidents that was set up in October 2001. Superintendent Buttress started his talk by noting that Britain has always had to deal with unique and high-level events, from IRA terrorism to plane crashes. Therefore, he reasoned, for the government to have invested an additionally £80m in a centre solely concerned with CBRN would suggest they are aware of the risk it poses, and suggests they are conscious an attack of this nature is a possibility in the future.
He continued by noting that the CBRN threat is somewhat of an unknown because of the risk of suicide bombers – something not encountered in Britain previously – and the randomness of the targets, i.e. the general public, means it is harder to predict where an attack could occur. Therefore it is vital police officers are trained to be able to cope with incidents as and when they could occur – as Superintendent Buttress says, ‘to increase CBRN resilience through a series of phased investments’.
As part of this Superintendent Buttress touched on two distinct areas. Firstly, the necessity of having the correct clothing was covered, after the recent signing of a contract worth £18m that was recently signed to provide 12,000 CBRN quick-don PPE suits to officers, after an extensive tender process. It was noted that spending £18m on clothing that may never be used is a large outlay but a vital one that will help ensure the best possible response to an incident. The original clothing used, while able to cope with the conditions they could face, took around 40 minutes to put on, where as the new quick-don suits take just five minutes.
Secondly, the importance of crowd control was another area that the Police National CBRN Centre has to consider and Superintendent Butress explained that to provide this it has recently purchased a series of large barriers, which have been used in real situations, such as at a Cardiff v Swansea football match. As well as this, an electronic messaging system, to provide information to those held behind barriers, has been purchased too. This has also been used at Glastonbury to remind those arriving to be aware of the risk of crime. ‘Familiarising officers with this equipment is vital as it means if they have to use it during a large-scale incident they are not coming to it cold,’ said Superintendent Butress.
While CBRN might, in the main, be a niche area, the investment the governments has made in the Police National CBRN Centre underlines the importance it places in this area, and the possibility it could be called into action and to date over 7,000 officers have been trained at this dedicated centre.
Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) Teams - Steve Wheaton
Steve Wheaton, Regional Head of Specialist Operations from the West Midlands Ambulance Service, gave the final talk of the morning sessions with regards Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) and the role they play in providing emergency triage and treatment to patients in hazardous areas and warm zones. As Wheaton noted, previously at large-scale incidents paramedics would have to stand on the edge of the inner cordon, waiting for patients to be brought to them before they could begin treatment. Obviously this was not a good way to operate and wasn’t good for patients.. Therefore the idea of setting up dedicated teams who would be trained to enter hazardous areas was put forward in 2004 after reports from incidents like 9/11 had been produced. The project was looked into by the Department of Health, to assess its viability and cost and they submitted a paper to government ministers recommending the teams in May 2005. Then, after the terrorist attacks in July, the project was fast-tracked and given approval in August.
As a result of this the plan is to have 12 HART teams based across the UK by the end of 2012. London will have two teams, covering the East and West of the city, while the North West, covering Manchester and Liverpool, will also have two teams, due to the size of the area and the two populations in these cities. The HART teams are to be phased into their areas over 18 months, a period in which the teams are trained and provided with the necessary equipment, to bring them up to the required standard.
Since the inception of the HART teams Wheaton said there had been a good level of interest from ambulance staff to join. As a result the training encompasses both the teaching of the necessary skills and tests to ensure they are competent for the role, including psychological and physical assessments and resilience tests, all of which lasts nine weeks. After training a HART teams consists of six paramedics, including a team leader. They remain dedicated HART staff to ensure their skills and training remains current while maintaining 24/7 dedicated incident coverage. As well as training, the HART teams also work closely with fire services and other agencies in their areas to forge links and communications as they are often working closely together at incidents, said Wheaton.
HART teams also utilise a range of specialist vehicles that include a forward command vehicles fitted with the necessary equipment and technology for use at the site. This includes satellite communications, a self-contained Wi-Fi network, VOIP and GSM encrypted phones and the necessity of having access to this equipment means that a back-up of each vehicle has also been purchased so if one is taken out of action for any reason there is a back up on available. All this has been achieved with additional funding provided by the government, with the promise of continued funding of around £2.4m a year, something that Wheaton says has helped significantly in providing a basis for the project to move forward with the knowledge the funding is in place for the future.
To conclude, Wheaton gave an example of the real-life benefits of HART, when called into action in Birmingham in April. ‘The original call suggested approx 30 ambulances would need to be sent to a swimming pool after a chlorine leak affected around 50 children. Obviously 30 ambulances is a huge amount and one a controller would find it almost impossible to send. However, once the true extent of the call was ascertained by commanders on the scene, it was evident that large amount of resources were required to provide oxygen therapy equipment, they were able to send a HART team, with their specialist equipment, to the incident to provide rapid triage and medical treatment. With the Multiple oxygen Delivery system carried on their vehicles they were able to treat 40 children at the scene and only five ambulances were needed to transport more severe casualties to hospital,’ explained Wheaton. This was just one example of where HART teams are making a clear difference in today’s operational environment and improving the care given to patients.
