Wiltshire 999 teams test underground incident skills in Swindon (From Swindon Advertiser)

Wiltshire 999 teams test underground incident skills in Swindon

10:22am Thursday 4th October 2012 in News

WILTSHIRE Fire and Rescue Service has held an exercise to test its procedures in case of an incident underground.

A 2km stretch of sewer is being constructed in West Swindon between Paddington Drive and the Wichelstowe development and work will continue until Christmas.

Watch Manager Paul Jarmey, from Westlea fire station, said: “Barhale, the company building the sewer, have their own safe systems of work and their own emergency response arrangements, including specialist rescue teams.

“It therefore made sense to hold an exercise with them, so we could understand how we would work together in the event of an incident.

“We could be called upon to help a casualty who is some 10m below ground and up to 110m along the tunnel.

This is an environment we don’t often encounter so it was beneficial to work with Barhale and test our responses.”

Andy Dodman, the head of health and safety for Barhale, said: “Our team welcomed the opportunity to work with Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service and appreciated their support and assistance ”