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Hemel Hempstead’s Snow Centre was the scene for a multi-agency training exercise on Monday 19 May, when responders from Hertfordshire’s fire and rescue, ambulance and police services carried out a rescue simulating a real-life incident.
A five-car collision during a snowstorm at night tested the plans of emergency services working together to assist casualties and make the area safe in extreme weather conditions, as cold as minus six degrees, on the Snow Centre slope.
Exercise participants included Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, Hertfordshire County Council, Hertfordshire Constabulary, the county’s borough and district councils, the East of England Ambulance Service and Hertfordshire colleagues across the NHS.
“As a Local Resilience Forum, we always hope for the best but plan for the worst, so the opportunity to bring together so many partners for a live exercise in real-world extreme weather conditions has been invaluable.
“Exercise Frostbite demonstrated the close and well-tested partnership working that already exists, giving our residents the reassurance that we have the capability no matter the conditions to keep people and property across the county safe.”
Alex Woodman, Chief Fire Officer and Chair of the Hertfordshire Local Resilience Forum.
HLRF is a partnership of over 60 organisations who plan and train together to provide the quickest and most effective response to incidents and emergencies. HLRF also works to inform Hertfordshire residents, businesses and organisations about the risks they face, including extreme hot and cold weather, flooding, cyber attacks, utilities failure and disruption, flooding and terrorism, and what they can do to prepare for them.
Alex talks to our Deputy Editor, Lanna Deamer on episode 5 of our For Every Response podcast. You can catch the episode from June 3 on your favourite podcast provider, or at this link.
To read similar stories, check out our Frontline channel.
