IT WAS as realistic as they could make it when the Phillip Island Fire Brigade, backed up by crews from San Remo and Wonthaggi, set up a training scenario at the Berninneit Cultural Centre in Cowes on Tuesday night, July 30.
The fire call had gone out and as soon as volunteer fire fighters arrived at the scene, they were aware that multiple people had been affected by smoke inhalation or worse and needed evacuation and first aid treatment.
Phillip Island Captain Lino Drazzi was impressed with how the exercise rolled out.
“They’ve arrived and seen smoke and brought the blaze under control and have also been accounting for the casualties,” Captain Drazzi said.
“They’ve located most of the people but there are still a few people unaccounted for,” he said.
Fire fighters were in and out of the cultural centre in breathing apparatus and soon there were ‘victims’ of the incident being assisted with CPR and defibrillators outside.
It was cold, bitterly cold but there was a sense of calm and purpose all the same as the emergency service personnel went about their work.
It’s incident scenarios like these that help fire brigades test their systems, equipment and preparedness and it hats off to the dozens of volunteers who turned out to take part.
