Mercury '05

[CFS_fire32]

What brigades (HAZMAT) were involved in the Mercury '05 exercise?  I see on the promo website that State HAZMAT, Burnside and Athelstone CFS were involved.
What feedback do they have about their role as one of the combatant authorities?
Was it a worth while exercise? I would imagine it would be a great exercise to be a part of, from a HAZMAT point of view anyway.

[OMGWTF]

oakbank/balhannah 24p, athelstone 24p and burnside hazmat all attended... and  i believe did all there work at the QEH doing decon...

LOL at the MFS though, during the bgi excercise on wednesday the mets got two real HAZMATs... very short on the ground crew wise, casused a COQ for dalkeith to angle park, burnside pumper to glen osmond, happy valley to christies, and at the completion of there role in mercury, athelstone and oakbank were set up at Adelaide stn for some time...

also believe tea tree gully were sitting in golden grove's station all day.

some of these COQ were pre-organised.

[CFS_fire32]

What about Stirling and Eden Hills?

I was a little disappointed that other HAZMAT brigades (particularly those in Region 1) weren't given the opportunity to take part - at least for one of the days.

Let's face it, if something does go down, there will be HAZMAT brigades flooding in left, right and centre from all around the state.

[strikeathird]

Yea found it a little amusing when 206 informed METS HQ it would be 2 hours to have the tender ready to roll...  Then the HAzmat out north went 2nd alarm...

15 mins later... Fire / Hazmat at Brighton...  Hows that for timing !!

[Toast]

Stirling didnt get a run, apart from our SAPOL and MART members. I was a bit surprised to see that COQ setup... Why Burside didnt rotate into Adelaide and then Stirling into Glen Osmond seems odd. I assume both Athelstone and Oakbank/Balhannah had 24P's ?

[strikeathird]

Affirm to the 24P's question I believe.

[Wagon 1]

The reason no COQ for the city until later was the fact SAMFS had 2 spare pumpers running from Stn 20, but they used the 2 CFS trucks later as they had multiple Hazmat calls on, so they had nothing left Hazmat wise, in fact they had not much left full stop!!

Also the reason they keep using those brigades is the fact they are the brigades that will respond to those incidents, also I understand Oakbank is a CBR brigade.

[strikeathird]

Are they going to release a statement or 'result' as such, on the Mercury training ??

Would be nice to know about what improvements could be made, what went well, what didn't, etc etc.

[OMGWTF]

What about Stirling and Eden Hills?

I was a little disappointed that other HAZMAT brigades (particularly those in Region 1) weren't given the opportunity to take part - at least for one of the days.

Let's face it, if something does go down, there will be HAZMAT brigades flooding in left, right and centre from all around the state.

got to leave some HAZMAT resources available for the real thing

besides i think the only brigades involved were from region 1... burnside, athelstone and oakbank/balhannah.... actually i cant remember if oakbank/balhannah are region 1 or 2... lol

[Toast]

It would have been nice to see all of the major hospitals in adelaide do a Mass Decon excercise at some point over the three days. So far our brigade has never been to our assigned hospital, trips that were planned got cancelled. Would have been a great oppourunity to get to practice the setups at the correct place.

[CFS_Firey]

The reason no COQ for the city until later was the fact SAMFS had 2 spare pumpers running from Stn 20, but they used the 2 CFS trucks later as they had multiple Hazmat calls on, so they had nothing left Hazmat wise, in fact they had not much left full stop!!

Also the reason they keep using those brigades is the fact they are the brigades that will respond to those incidents, also I understand Oakbank is a CBR brigade.

Isn't the point of a COQ to cover for the MFS, hence you would need a truck with a heavy duty pump, RCR and Hazmat, not just a 24P with Hamzat...
and Re: CBR brigade, I thought the state cache of CBR equipment was stored at Brukunga, not assigned to a particular brigade... :?

Back to mercury 05, I didn't hear anything about mass decon... does anyone know if the Mass decon setups were trialled?

[OMGWTF]

the mass decon pods from SAMFS were taken to the scene (Adeliade Netball Stadium) and i believe CFS trialled the mss decon at the QEH

[CFS_Firey]

Did they meet expectations?

[Wagon 1]

If you ask CFS HQ, a 24P is more than enough to cover SAMFS (yeah right) and we are not here to prop up SAMFS (but it's fine to use them when we can't boost properly)

The reason they used Athelstone and Oakbank is because they were there, no point calling another brigade out.

[Roger]

WRT 24P's v Pumpers for COQ... for the most part a CFS 24P will do just fine for COQ. They will deal with just about anything. If there is an incident requiring boosting or aerial appliance feeds then the CFS 24P would not be responding on their own. As backup there would be at least one MFS or CFS pumper. It's then up to the officers on scene to allocate the appropriate resources to the required tasks. No different to somewhere like Mt Barker where the local crews know that if boosting is required there are certain appliances up to the task...

[TillerMan]

That's fine, i don't think you would want 2 c.f.s 24p's being the only one's in station 20 though. It's alot different boosting a 20 story highrise building to boosting a winery or factory etc. I am also supprised m.f.s don't require c.f.s change of quarters appliances to have a PPV fan, high rise kit and RIV gear which most 24p's dont carry.

[OMGWTF]

well its up to the mets really... as they do the change of wuarters from there... they dont actually request them at all initially, or ask CFS HQ what the ycan and cant have...

they know where pumpers are if they want them.

[Wagon 1]

Thats just it, they have no idea what we have they just assume that a GP cfs truck is the same as a GP mfs truck. I have been OIC to a RCR well into SAMFS area and the only reason we were responded was they were under the assumption that we carried RIV like they do on their GP pumps. They were short on appliances and the nearest Rescue Pump was a long distance off, when I told them we had nothing on our truck you could hear them swearing under their breath!!

[OMGWTF]

hah lol

[medevac]

mmm OMGWTF depending on the circumstance they may actually request the COQ through CFS FSLO, who will speak to SOC who may speak to region etc etc ... one big time wasting activity,... on the other hand MFS m,ay just page the briogade...

[Roger]

One of the MFS comms officers once told me that they are allowed to page 3 brigades from any one region before they have to ask the CFS RDO to organise further COQ...does this mean they can bring in 6 brigades (reg 1 & 2)?

[oz fire]

Thats just it, they have no idea what we have they just assume that a GP cfs truck is the same as a GP mfs truck. I have been OIC to a RCR well into SAMFS area and the only reason we were responded was they were under the assumption that we carried RIV like they do on their GP pumps. They were short on appliances and the nearest Rescue Pump was a long distance off, when I told them we had nothing on our truck you could hear them swearing under their breath!!

Interesting thought - MFS assigned appliance numbers to CFS appliances with prior knowledge as to the equipment carried - hence a 22, 24, 34 for standard CFS appliances and a 19 for rescue. They also have at their finger tips in Comms (the area responsible for despatch) appliance stowage listings and a resources folder that states what additional equipment different brigades have ....... maybe though, those on the road in the stations don't share this level of knowegde and therefore assume - maying an donkey you them and you!

[Roger]

Interesting thought - MFS assigned appliance numbers to CFS appliances with prior knowledge as to the equipment carried - hence a 22, 24, 34 for standard CFS appliances and a 19 for rescue.

Not necessarily... some of the callsigns were added to cater for the response customising when they upgraded their software, so that neighbouring brigades weren't necessarily the same, ie 8032 8224 8334, even though that may not match the appliance type they have. (their computer looked for a type 34 or 24 or 32 specifically.)

They also have at their finger tips in Comms (the area responsible for despatch) appliance stowage listings and a resources folder that states what additional equipment different brigades have ...

the only info the MFS have about brigade stowage kits is our callsigns... if you are a 19 you have rescue. If you have a 42 you have a tanker. If you have a 28 you have hazmat. There is nothing more than that... If you're lucky you'll get a shift that has a CFS vol on it who might know off the top of his head...
BTW, nice to hear another CFS vol has started on D shift! Why don't they put one on each shift?! Maybe SACAD will sort them out!

[CFS_Firey]

Maybe SACAD will sort them out!

By the sounds of it, CAD will also cure cancer.... :lol:

[medevac]

thought most of the comms guys were just firefighters, that were "off the line" for a wee while