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Mass Decontamination

Mass decontamination of the public may raise some unsavoury images but it is only right and hopefully reassuring, that plans are in place to protect the public form this risk.

It is also intended to prevent hospitals from becoming contaminated and therefore be put out of commission.

We have fully embedded the New Dimension mass decontamination capability within HFRS by training virtually all our operational staff in its application.

The mass decontamination capability is directed by the Civil Protection Manager and managed on a daily basis by the two Station Managers at Hightown and Redbridge where the Incident Response Unit (IRU) is operated. Each watch at these stations has a mass decontamination instructor and a fork lift instructor to carry out training and assessments.

Interim and full mass decontamination has been and continues to be exercised extensively both in and out of the county.

All other agencies have been familiarised with the capability and we actively support other agencies by taking a leading role in exercises to develop their plans.

Due to the expertise developed by Hampshire we are often used to help with other national developmental work and demonstrations.

Personnel from several fire stations are specially trained to erect and operate these systems while all stations have received training as ‘warm zone operatives’ to assist the public through the system.

All officers have been familiarised with the system and our Hazardous Material Officers have been trained for the specific functional roles needed to direct the whole operation.

Hamble, Romsey and Totton Fire Stations are receiving additional training to act as support mass decontamination crews and in particular the wearing of the new powered respirator protective suits about to arrive which will greatly increase the efficiency of the systems.

Hampshire has an Incident Response Unit (IRU) carrying two complete decontamination systems and three Mass Decontamination Disrobe (MDD) modules.

The disrobe modules carry thousands of disrobe kits which can be distributed to contaminated casualties.

Removing contaminated clothing is the single most effective way of reducing possible consequences and allows time for the decontamination showers to be erected.

The MDD modules carry thousands of these kits which allow people remove contaminated clothing in a safe and dignified way and removing about 85% of contaminant.

The crews will at the same time be erecting highly effective mobile public decontamination facilities (warm water showers) at the site of the incident. Each system is capable of decontaminating hundreds of people every hour.

Hampshire has also pioneered a nationally adopted procedure for the immediate decontamination of smaller numbers of casualties.

The system was conceived and developed by Green Watch at Redbridge Fire Station and cleverly utilises equipment on every fire engine to provide an improvised warm water shower system in just a few minutes.

This system is now in use by almost every fire service in the UK and ensures people can receive emergency decontamination allowing time for the specialist system to be set up.

This idea has now been adopted as a national procedure and is used by most other fire services.(photo)

The Mass Decontamination Incident Response Unit is currently housed at Redbridge Fire Station in a spare garage bay, modified for the extra height and vehicle charging installations.

The three Mass Decontamination Disrobe (MDD) units will be housed at HQ in the new compound under construction.

The Detection, Identification and Monitoring vehicle, due in January 2007, will be garaged in the new Stores/Garaging building at the rear of the HQ site along with all the Incident Support Team vehicles.