Plan and run the October emergency exercise with emergency services

What is going on

The safety case commits Hydra to two emergency exercises a year, one of them with emergency services. Margaret Stavros has set the October exercise as a hydrochloric acid release from the T-105 loading bay during a road tanker receipt, escalating to a potential offsite effect with the wind towards the neighbouring site. The emergency response plan covers the alarm, muster, the incident controller role, the emergency control centre, the hazard zone, community alert and the all clear. Emergency services and the two mutual aid sites have agreed to take part. The last exercise review found that the muster count took 22 minutes and that the wind direction indicator at the terminal was not visible from the muster point. The exercise must not create a real hazard at the terminal.

Your brief

Plan the exercise under the emergency response plan with a realistic scenario and injects, brief the emergency organisation and the external participants, control the exercise safely, evaluate the response against the plan and the previous findings and produce the review with actions within ten days.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the site emergency response plan, the dangerous goods policy and the abnormal situation procedure, and review the incident register for the previous exercise findings and the current T-105 restriction.
• Write the exercise plan: objectives, scenario, timeline, injects for the control room, the incident controller, the emergency response team and the terminal, the safety rules that keep the exercise from creating a real hazard, and the evaluation criteria.
• Coordinate with emergency services and the mutual aid sites on their participation, the communications to be tested and the community alert simulation, and confirm the exercise safety officer.
• Brief the incident controller, the emergency control centre team, the emergency response team, the muster wardens and the observers, and issue the observer checklists.
• Control the exercise on the day: release the injects on time, track the response, stop the exercise if a real hazard arises and record the muster count time, the hazard zone decision, the notifications and the all clear.
• Debrief participants immediately after the exercise and collect the observer checklists and the emergency control centre log.
• Evaluate the response against the plan and the previous findings, record the findings and actions with owners and dates in the incident register and update the emergency response plan where required.
• Prepare the exercise review report for the Site General Manager and the regulator within ten days.

What someone in this role would produce

• Exercise plan with scenario, injects, safety rules and evaluation criteria
• Briefing records for internal and external participants
• Exercise control log with times
• Debrief notes and observer checklists
• Exercise review report with actions in the register