The briefing from Ken (ex Group Officer) gave the crews information on the roles they were to play and some information about the need for the group to have the skills to manage small incidents. Ken also suggested that on a bad day the group may need to have the capacity to manage a growing Level 2 incident where the ICC at Sale was too busy to take control of an incident.
Not everyone was experienced in the incident management system and during the main exercise Mike Sears (Stratford Captain) gave his crew some instruction in the form of a local TEWT.
The exercise involved a hot start for the group with a developing fire to the East of Stratford, Lt Donna Missen was given the job of Crew Leader and Incident Controller for the initial response and soon had the highway closed by police and make tankers 10. Under the watchful eye of Lt Heather Hamment, Donna set her team to work looking at the fire location , local issues, access to the area and the forecast weather. After sectorising the fire the call was made to make tankers 20 and the Planning and Logistics sections went to work supporting the fire and making plans for what may happen.
Like all good incidents there was a short time taken to sort out the information flow and how things were going to work, "too much noise here so we will move logistics". Once everyone had settled into the roles things were running smoothly and a break was called for lunch.
Following lunch, despite the best efforts of the operations, planning and logistics units the fire ran its course to the wind change.
Lots of lessons learnt, new ideas to think about and a great day had by all, the group appreciated the work put in by Ken and others to get the exercise moving and make the day a success.
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