A major emergency event involving crashed cars, bloodied victims, fire and submerged vehicles will unfold in Junee on Sunday week, and the community is invited to attend.
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Dubbed Operation Webster, the multi agency exercise will be held at the lake adjacent to Laurie Daley Oval in Junee, on Sunday November 19 commencing at 10am.
Organised by the State Emergency Service, the event will include Fire and Rescue, the Rural Fire Service, Volunteer Rescue Service, NSW Ambulance, and medical students from Charles Sturt University. Police are also included in the brief.
“It’s the first of its kind for the Junee unit with agencies from across the region involved, “said SES Murrumbidgee Local Controller for Wagga Wagga Daniel Mahoney.
“The benefits that will come out of this are enormous; the ability to work together at a team in real life situations and on a community safety level.
“It gives us the chance to prepare ourselves in the event of a major catastrophe,” Mr Mahoney said.
The exercise will be based on a multi vehicle accident, where two of the vehicles will be involved in a head on collision, whilst the other vehicle that swerved to miss the first accident, ended up in the lake, to simulate a flood rescue scenario.
Adding to the drama, one of the first two vehicles involved in the road crash will be on fire, which will allow for the services to train under added pressure on the day.
Making the event more realistic, real life victims with fake blood and injuries will be to focus of rescue efforts; all of them being local media representatives; who will be the official dummies on the day.
“I think it’s quite good!”, laughed Mr Mahoney.
“But seriously, like the general public being invited, having media actually made to be victims will showcase the work emergency crews have to do.
“Emergency crews get to train, the public are invited to watch and see what we do, and the media get a different and intimate perspective of a real-life tragedy,” Mr Mahoney said.
The simulated major emergency begins at 10am until midday on Sunday and will include a free sausage sizzle form 11.30am which includes drinks for the community.
Emergency crews will also be on hand to educate the public on flood safety and fire safety awareness.