NEWS RELEASES
Horsham acts out an emergency
13th March 2007
OVER 70 people came together recently to act out an emergency in Horsham.
Horsham District Council ran an emergency planning exercise on Friday 16 February involving its own staff and colleagues from the emergency services, other local authorities and agencies.
The scenario, which was not real life but in theory could happen, was that the Police had reported a severe gas leak in Horsham somewhere near the roundabout at the junction of Harwood Road and Comptons Lane.
At 8.45am on Friday 16 February, the exercise envisaged emergency services establishing a 400 metre cordon around the area whilst gas engineers searched for the leak. Around 200 people were notionally evacuated from the area until the gas leak was identified (none of this happened in real life; no cordon was actually set up and no one was evacuated as part of the exercise).
As would happen in real life, the Council would support the Emergency Services and Sussex Police would co-ordinate the response with support other agencies.
In response to the exercise’s emergency call out, the Council set up its emergency command and control centre in its offices in Horsham and also established a rest centre at the Drill Hall in Denne Road for those who were evacuated.
The rest centre was set up as it would be in a real life situation and the evacuees (people who were role playing) were offered shelter, food and refreshments, advice and support and ongoing information updates about the incident.
Speaking after the event was over, Cllr Liz Kitchen, Leader of Horsham District Council, said:
“The exercise was a success, although as with all such practices it highlighted some areas for improvement.
“We obviously hope that nothing like this would ever happen in real life but it is our job and that of other authorities to have an emergency plan and to be ready to put it into action in such a situation.
“We often review the plan and this exercise is one part of this important work.
“I would like to thank everyone who took part in the recent exercise.”
Ends
CONTACT: Richard Morris, Communications Manager
Email: richard.morris@horsham.gov.uk