Fire and Rescue Service Management at the Buncefield - Case Study Example

University> < Buncefield Fire > by Abstract The report looks at the Bunsfield Fire disaster of 2005 and puts forward the important reasons why an efficacious Incident Command System is required, for effectively tackling complex disasters such as the one in Bunsfield, UK. Table of Contents I. Incident Overview…………………………………..…..….……….4 II. Incident Command Systems.………………………...…....….…….5 III. ICS Levels………………………………..……..…...……..…..….6 IV. Dynamic Risk Assessment……………………………………........7 V. Reports on the Bunsfield Fire...………………………….……..........7 VI. Media Agencies…….…………………………….….…....….….…9 VII. Conclusion..…………………………………………..…………...10 Incident Overview On Sunday 11 December 2005, The Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal (HOSL), which was situated 25 miles north of London, met with a disastrous accident. It was early morning when a storage tank in its premise started to overflow and the unleaded petrol continued to flow through the roof vents. Generally, the installed gauge monitor helps in detecting the overflow of fuels and sounds an alarm of such an incident occurs. This would cause a safety switch to be powered on, preventing the flow of petrol. However, due to the failure of the technical equipments, the fuel continued to flow and eventually collected in an area (Bund A). Along with the fuel, a dense vapour began to form as well, and it became 2m thick in a very short time. By 5.30 AM, the vapour statretd to flow outside the premises very soon at the Cherry Tree Lane and Buncefield Lane junction. By 6 AM, the vapour cloud had already covered an extensive area and within a short time, the first explosion happened. A few of the potential sources for Ignition include the emergency pump house which was located to Bund A’s north and the emergency generator cabin Which was located to the south of the Northgate building. A large fire engulfed more than twenty storage tanks in Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, making the incident one of the most disastrous fire incidents in the UK. A major emergency was declared and teams of fire-fighters arrived at the scene. About 650 Fire appliances were used to extinguish the fire and it took almost four days to extinguish the fire. The fire was officially extinguished on the fifteenth of December. Besides charring Most of the property of the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, the Buncefield fire destroyed a number of local businesses as well as residences in the nearby area. One of the major impacts the incident had was that it brought to the forefront the immediate need for hazardous plants such as HOSL to make careful evaluation of this societal risk that it was putting on the nearby businesses and residences. One of the documentation switch explore the viability of rules and regulations pertaining to the hazards of plans such as these was the HSE Consultative Document 212. The HOSL was primarily owned by Total and Texaco, and other British firms such as British Petroleum as well as British Pipeline Agency partly owned the plant. One of the fire officers described the incident as the largest in the Europe’s history of peacetime. Subsequently, an investigation board called the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board was set up and it proposed 32 recommendations. The board also stated that the Buncefield incident served as a major reminder for contingency planning. Hence there were major revisions in Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) of 2004 which further reinstated the need for Incident Command Systems for effectively tackling fire hazards such as the Buncefield fire and drastically reduce the losses. Incident Command Systems Incident Command Systems or ICS contains a hierarchy of standard management and helps in the temporary management of incidents such as fire hazards of fire accidents. For implementing Incident Command Systems, it first needs to be sanctioned by legal authorities and then trained for a specific disaster, before that disaster such as fire accident strikes. Furthermore, ICS also integrates certain procedures for the formation of management hierarchies for the control of elements such as communications, equipment, facilities, funds and personnel during that time when the rescue operations of the disasters such as a fire hazard is underway. Personnel are generally selected according to a few standardized rules. Incident command system therefore is a temporary group or forum which helps in effectively curbing and controlling the situation and it is dissolved as an end the disaster is successfully brought under control. ICS Levels The levels which are generally included in an Incident Command System are an Incident Commander; who can be a Single Incident Commander, Area Commander or a Unified Commander. Under the incident Commander, there is the Command Staff such as Safety officers and Liaison officers; then there are General Staff such as Operations Section Chief and Planning Section Chief. There are also the 200 Level ICS integrating Information and Intelligence Services and the 400 ICS containing Dual Logistics Section Chiefs for extremely complex operations suh as the one that occurred in the Bunsfield Fire. Incident command systems are structured in such a way which allows the management to meet certain challenges which include: • It helps the jurisdictions to successfully control incidents of great complexity such as fire accidents effectively. • ICS help us in the facilitation of personnel from diverse backgrounds and values to get together In one platform and cohesively attempt at curbing a disaster five following, management structure and terminology. • Helps and providing administrative as well as logical support to the operational stuff Provide logistical and administrative support to operational staff. • Helps greatly in reducing costs of disaster control operations such as fire hazards. • Helps in providing an emergency organization which is completely unified and centrally authorized. Dynamic Risk Assessment Dynamic risk assessment or DRA is basically the assessment of risks that is undertaken before venturing into an emergency operation or an emergency management procedure such as a fire incident. The Buncefield fire served as the lesson for the authorities in the United Kingdom, since there was a number of departments where the administration was found lacking. Especially in the area of dynamic risk assessment, at ministry shun was found to be inadequately prepared to tackle such a situation. DRA times to evaluate the potential risks if before doing as well as after the operation of curbing a major disaster. One of the most important yardsticks used in Dynamic risk assessment is weighing benefits of an operational task such as an Incident Command System against the risks undertaken by the personnel for successfully controlling of the impending disaster. Although another type of risk assessments called the systematic risk assessment Is quite popular for managing and handling disasters such as infernos, dynamic risk assessment has a number of advantages. First of all, dynamic risk assessment takes careful consideration of unpredictable or unforeseen risks which is quite common in fire disasters. DRA is also successful in evaluating an environment where there are rapid transformation changes such as an inferno. Finally, the dynamic risk assessment also allows the personnel to make risks judgments. Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (2006, p. 59) states ‘For personal discipline resulted in some fire personnel entering the risk area without permission and undertaking tasks outside any agreed action plan. It is probable that a reasonably efficient inner cordon would have prevented this.’ Reports on the Bunsfield Fire The Bunsfield fire disaster was one of the biggest challenges for the fire fighting team and World War II. The fire and rescue mission was considered to be a success, keeping in mind the fact that the disaster was on a large scale. However number of reports on Buncefield fire made it clear that there were certain shortcomings in the rescue mission. A number of lessons in the national, local and international spheres were learnt. The fire engulfed 22 storage tanks as well as seven bunds, and to about four days to extinguish. If there was a working partnership between 31 fire and rescue and rescue services from all over the UK, along with the number of industry brigades and the Hertfordshire Resilience Forum. It is also found that some personnel did not work within the command structures, and hence a few instances of self deployment was evident during the rescue operation, which is against the norms of incident command systems and therefore unacceptable. It has also found by a few reports that there was a need for a national system which would have recorded fire responders at the scene of the fire. Moreover, there was a shortage of personnel who had the experience in operations such as these. Such type of personnel would have been beneficial since they have given valuable feedback to the incident commander regarding health and safety issues. One of the positives in the rescue mission was the Hertfordshire Resilience Forum, since the forum had already created simulated exercises of events such as this fire disaster, which definitely helped in better coping with the disaster. Another commendable achievement of the Hertfordshire Resilience Forum was the way that they have the media. Their media handling technique served as one of great examples which other rescue operations should follow. It has also found that during the operations, the number of critical systems and protocols weren’t properly tested and conformed to by the personnel. Hence there were a few critical shortcomings in the action plan, which should be corrected for handling future incidents such as the Bunsfield fire. It is also recommended by the reports that the local as well as national assessments are regularly rendered just be prepared for future events such as this. This would also enable an advanced warning system to be in place. Another one of the points brought out by the reports were that a number of procedures need to be standardized for better handling of emergency situations if Some aspects such as using of access routes to the RVPs which are defined; a better cordoning and vehicular access system by trafficking the personnel through the outer cordon. The awareness of the Incident Command Systems required better implementation with the help of incident command support teams as well as well trained tactical advisors, who could be deployed in a region of the UK briskly and effectively. One of the advantages of the time of the incident was that it was early morning and hence the competition networks and lines were not as jammed as it is during peak business hours. However a more robust communication system among the senior most officers was a requirement. Media Agencies As regards the media coverage is concerned, it has considered that the photography and the news channel coverage of the disaster were very useful. However it is also stated the reports that if an earlier deployment of media agencies such as newspaper photographers and new channel cameraman would have helped better understanding of the incident. One of the major media agencies which had been active during a disaster and needed special mention was the British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC news service. The BBC received our record breaking number of viewers during its coverage of the Bunsfield fire. What’s more, the viewers had the opportunity to get a first hand view of the explosions as it happened in real time. The events in the morning also generated almost 4.7 million individuals who viewed the new channel. In contrast, Sky News talk just 4 million viewers which has about 1.8% share as compared to BBC’s 2.1% share. News coverage by BBC One also received a record number of viewers which was quite an achievement for the media agencies such as BBC. In the UK homes which had a multichannel broadcast, the Breakfast show on Sky News had 1.2 million viewers. The major news channels of the UK were the BBC, Sky News and News 24, which became quite evident during the Bunsfield fire disaster. The BBC Breakfast reporter Colin Campbell was onsite at 6 AM near Buncefield reporting outside the Foreign Office. Furthermore, ABC channel received almost 10,000 emails which were primarily for the grants and the UK taken from mobile phones and handheld video recorders of the witnesses near the oil depot. Almost half a million users accessed BBC’s online news service foreseen the clips and footage of the disaster. Besides the BBC, if the other major new channels of the UK received a record breaking number of materials from viewers and volunteers who send images and footage via e-mail, prove once and for all that the role of the media in the modern society is extremely important. It is not only the administrators which he is on the news agency such as BBC and Sky News, but it was as the majority of view is public who wanted to share their experiences with the new channels, thereby reinstating the needs and the importance of an effective liaison of people and administrators with media agencies. Conclusion All in all, the management during the Bunsfield disaster was put in a very strong test. The objectives of the disaster were immediate and so were the expected results. Whatever the management and the fire fight as did during that time in December, 2005 was exceptional however a number of improvements could be made. Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (2006, p. 57) states ‘The issues with the ICS can be partly assigned to the scale of the incident and the number of personnel from different FRCs and nationally mobilized teams operating on the site. Sector commanders were designated, wore tabards, had command support and had come communication links to the HFRS control unit.’ Since the rescue operations had a long lasting implication afterwards, thus it is quintessential to have an Incident Command System which could easily embrace the strategic and tactical factors required for effective response. Tickle saint command is one of the important elements for rescue operation of a disaster with a magnitude of Buncefield fire. A strategic Incident Command System is an absolute necessity for mediating a disaster and helping in the continuity of a business operation. Furthermore, If there was an Incident Command System place during the Bunsfield fire, live in the neighboring community would have gone back to normal much faster, besides saving consider a large amount of resources and assets of the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal. Bibliography Great Britain: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. (2006) Buncefield: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service's Review of the Fire Response, Stationery Publishing, London Websites and Web Links: Buncefield Investigation Home Page Buncefield Standards Task Group – Environmental Standards for Fuel Storage Sites Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board – Recommendations on Preparedness for Major Emergencies COMAH Competent Authority: Initial report on the findings of the oil/fuel depot safety alert review HSE, Environment Agency, SEPA 13 June 2006 Read More