Emergency services practice skilled water rescue in preparation for summer

Skilled water rescue emergency teams have taken part in a training event involving a rescue from a partially sub-merged car in the River Lea, on the Hertfordshire-Essex border.

The planned exercise, code named Exercise Titan, involved crews from Hertfordshire Constabulary, the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust (EEAST), Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency, worked together to rescue two people from an over-turned car under fast flowing water conditions.

The exercise scenario involved two people driving close to a grass verge on the River Lea, with loud music playing.

In the scenario, police receive a report via the non-emergency number 101 that a vehicle was driving off road near the river. Five minutes later, there was a further call received from the driver of the vehicle after the car had flipped off the verge and into the river, landing on its roof.

“The exercise which performed by multiple units of our frontline, demonstrated that when we are called up on for such an emergency response, that we are well equipped with both training and knowledge to deal with the incident.

“Every incident is going to be different but if we as a group of emergency services can be in the best place possible for when something like a water rescue was to occur, then we can feel better prepared to respond.”

Charlie Hall, Hertfordshire Constabulary Chief Constable and national policing lead for JESIP.

Emergency services across England are required to take part in regular training exercises as part of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and strive to create conditions that replicate possible real-life events as closely as possible.

In this instance the event took place on Environment Agency land under carefully controlled conditions, and included careful preparation to ensure that the waterways were safe for emergency workers to work in and that there was no impact on the water or the surrounding environment.

“Exercises such as this one ensure that first responders in the area can work together for the best outcome.

“In this case we were lucky to be able to challenge our crews to respond to an emergency which becomes more common in the Summer months, a water-based rescue.”

Graham Grover, firefighter from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue and Multi-Agency Training and Exercise Co-ordinator, Local Resilience Forum.

Emergency crews were careful to ensure that the car used in the event was classified as ‘clean’ to ensure that there was no possibility of damaging or contaminating the water, or the country-side surrounding the exercise.

Kate Vaughton, deputy Chief Executive Officer and Director of Integration at EEAST, said: “As a frontline emergency service, we are continually taking part in training exercises such as this one to ensure we provide the best possible response in a real scenario. Joint exercises with our colleagues in the fire service, police and other agencies allow us to build effective relationships between blue light services, which are vital when we need to work together to save lives.

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