Emergency crews have been trained in how to deal with radiation incidents at a training event organised by Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Fire officers called in the help of experts from the Government’s Health Protection Agency to teach first responders how to deal with any potential radiation leaks in the county.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is responsible for rescuing road crash victims and would be called to transport accidents involving vehicles carrying radioactive materials.
“It was to give us more knowledge about dealing with what are very rare radiation situations. We went through the procedures on how to identify and measure sources of radiation and the methods to deal with any incidents,” said the fire service’s training manager Phil Clarke, who heads the training department at Telford Central Fire Station.
“In Shropshire, organisations all work together on major incidents and it was useful to be offered the chance of training from the Health Protection Agency via this Radsafe awareness training course which was put on at no cost to us. It was a very successful multi-agency training day.”
The event, held at Tweedale Fire Station in Telford, was attended by representatives from the fire service, police, Shropshire Council and the Environment Agency.
A spokesman for Radsafe said: “This course is intended for those professionals whose duties may encompass planning for, or responding to, transport radiation emergencies. It is a Radsafe course managed by the Health Protection Agency.”
