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Fire Department Prepares For The Worst
posted (April 2, 2015)
The Thursday before Good Friday - colloquially referred to as "Holy Thursday" is a day of hustling and bustling - particularly in the city where many are trying to get out on the road or the waterways. But, traffic ground to a halt today in Belize City when the fire department staged a disaster simulation at a busy intersection. It was an elaborate scenario of many things going wrong that required a multi-agency response. We spoke to Fire Chief Ted Smith about how it played out:..

Ted Smith, Fire Chief
"We had simulated an RTA to traffic accident. The scenario was simple. The police was chasing a vehicle. The suspect were involved in illegal activities. The vehicle ran under high speed and then it hit a butane LPG truck that was making turn at the round-about and a third vehicle that was coming also got involved in the accident. The truck, when it was hot at the tail, it broke a pipe and caused butane to escape rapidly. The responding unit primary role was to ensure that the casualties were safely rescued. But at the same time they needed to neutralize the threat from the LPG that was spilling/leaking out. So, they did both; they neutralize the threat by advancing on the LPG tank providing two stream of water for safety and security and they closed the main valve from the LPG truck and shut down the leakage before an ignition could have occurred and from there they move on to extricate the casualties from both vehicles."

Courtney Weatherburne
"How would you asses or evaluate the exercise?"

Ted Smith, Fire Chief
"It's for training purposes and there is no perfect situation. We all know that. The more we train, the more we eliminate the chances of things go wrong at a realistic incident scene."

Courtney Weatherburne
"In terms of the time it took to rescue some of the passengers or the victims there, based on your expertise, we still want to know your evaluation of the exercise."

Ted Smith, Fire Chief
"In everything we would want to do it faster and better, but its lives we are dealing with. Its hydraulic tools we are dealing with. You make mistakes, you cut off the man foot, so you have to take your time and put the brain in gear before the arms and the legs can be executed."

Reporter
"Did anyone die in the simulation?"

Ted Smith, Fire Chief
"Not today."

True to the spirit of a real time simulation - none of the agencies received advance notice that it would be happening.

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