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Flight Sergeant 'Spike' McKee goes on exercise with RAF Akrotiri’s Emergency Services.

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An Explosive Display

IMAGINE the scene, a vehicle transporting enough explosives to cause fatalities, catches fire in the Explosives Storage Area (ESA) at RAF Akrotiri.  If the situation is not dealt with quickly and professionally there is the very real potential for disaster.

An announcement comes over the Tannoy:

“Vehicle fire carrying explosives at the Explosive Storage Area.”

Within 90 seconds fire and medical crews are en-route, blue lights flashing, their glow emphasised against the rugged mountains that rise above Limassol in the background.

Luckily this was just an exercise, a “Station level blue light emergency response exercise,” in the words of Warrant Officer Rob Moylan, the Station Fire Officer.  It’s importance, however, should not be underestimated. Exercises like this are a part of vital training to make sure that the emergency services at RAF Akrotiri are prepared.

I witnessed first-hand as the RAF Akrotiri blue light services pulled together during the exercise in July.  Flight Sergeant “Bomber” Lancaster explained to me what it was all about. He said: 

“Today was about training to the risk we hold at Akrotiri and involving other blue light services, so we can work and develop our relationship ensuring that we can operate effectively side by side.”

I accompanied the crews to the ESA and watched from a safe distance as Crew Commander Sergeant John Kearns controlled the incident from the entrance. He was in constant communication with his team on the ground: “Having a good situational awareness is vital, even though you are not in there,” he said.

Next, we headed to the scene of the accident.  The summer heat had now reached over 30 degrees.  Despite this fire crews were working hard in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Bomber was positioned where he could evaluate his crew’s performance and I got alongside him.  I asked him what he hoped he and his team would learn from today. He said: 

“The practice has highlighted some great Lessons identified that we can really work on to improve how we go about our business. The team work and effort were excellent, but it has emphasised a need for us to carry out further exercises like this to give our troops the experience and underpinning knowledge of what to expect should it ever happen for real.”

I asked him if he had ever experienced anything like this for real: “WO Moylan attended a major ESA incident in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan in 2013.  The incident placed significant pressure on firefighting crews as major incidents of this nature are difficult to prepare for.  He has used that experience to highlight the need to train realistically and effectively at unit specific requirement.”

It was apparent to me from what I could see that exercises such as this are of vital importance to the blue light services at RAF Akrotiri.  Asked if it was planned to have any further exercises this year FS Lancaster said:

“We plan to run at least another two practices this year on the other major risks on camp in the form of a Petroleum Storage Depot (PSD) and an aviation incident.” 

There is no doubt that training like this is important on any station to ensure that our people are prepared for any challenges that they may face.

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