join_logo_schwarzes-roundelEarly this month, St John Ambulance, member of Johanniter International, took part in a four-day-long exercise aimed at reinforcing civil protection teams’ preparedness for disasters. The simulation took place near Dartford, in the South East England, and is the largest ever disaster training exercise in the 150-year-long history of the London Fire Brigade. It is also one of the biggest and most complex exercises ever organised with the support from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The purpose of the operation was to test the coordinated response of more than 70 agencies in the event of a major disaster involving a high number of casualties.

A destroyed metro station was created to simulate a major search and rescue accident. That included platforms, carriages, rubble, as well as fake dead bodies and volunteer ‘casualties’ with lifelike injuries, such as burns and severed limbs.

Whilst not directly participating in providing responders to the exercise, St John Ambulance supported the London Ambulance Service with a small logistics team, equipment vehicles and a communications unit.

 

Find out more here (EN)