Responding to Emergency Service Incidents

Statutory and voluntary agencies who may work together at the scene of an emergency incident.

The police’s role in the Manchester bombing was to clear the building of any more bombs or potential terror suspects so that other emergency crews could get in the building and help any people, the polices role was also to cordon off roads so that other the fire service and ambulance service could come in but had to clear the arena first before allowing the services in to do their job, whilst also keep civilians back away from harm. The police had to collaborate with other services to carry out effective and efficient work to keep everyone safe (Richard Hartley-Parkinson, 2017).

The fire-fighters were told not to go in and start helping the injured people get to safety and to get treated, they weren’t allowed to enter the arena for 90 minutes after the attack which left many fire-fighters ashamed that they were unable to do their job, by the time they got in all the people had been treated or got out which rendered the fire service as useless (Baker, K, 2017).

The ambulance service were the most important emergency service on the ground by far as they had to help over 60 people who were injured in the blast, they treated over 60 walking people and took 59 of them to a hospital for further treatment they were also there to calm down people in and out of the building but sadly 22 people were killed (Roberts, R, Osbourne, S, 2017).

Non-statutory

The Red Cross have been helping those affected by the bombing by providing a level of expertise that other services can’t provide for example they have been providing emotional and practical support the next day by starting an emergency fund for those affected, the red cross also sent ambulances to hospitals so that people could get home safely and free up beds needed for others (British Red cross, 2017).
Salvation Army. The Salvation Army helped at the Manchester bombing by offering a safe place to have a drink and some food to the public services and victims this was important to keep the public services going so they could have the energy to help victims (Emily, 2017).

The Samaritans

The Samaritans helped by proving a phone line for people to call if they were distressed and needed emotional support (Samaritans, 2017).

2. The roles and responsibilities of the public services when attending at the scene of an emergency incident.

The fire services at the Grenfell tower fire played a major part of the incident. When arriving at the scene all of the services must follow the mnemonic;

CHALET

C-CASUALTIES: They must all know the approximate numbers of those who are dead, injured and uninjured.

H-HAZARD: They must all know any hazards that could be present on scene or a potential hazard that could happen.

A-ACCESS: They would all need to know the easiest routes to access the scene for their vehicles.

L-LOCATION: They need to know where the incident is so they can get to it as soon as possible.

E-EMERGENCY: They need to know which services are already on scene and which are required to attend the scene.

T: TYPE: They need to know the type of incident that is; how many vehicles, people and buildings are involved.

Fire Fighters

The roles they played at the fire were mainly to put the 24-floor fire out even though it took over 60 hours to be extinguished, needed over 200 fire fighters and 40 fire engines to do so, the main role they had was to save lives above all their other role was to put the fire out which was much harder than anticipated, these were the 2 major roles off the fire fighters. The fire service is responsible for identifying, detecting and monitoring any hazardous materials on a scene of an incident to prevent any more problems and stop not only protect the people on the scene but to prevent any further problems which could harm the surrounding environment. The responsibilities of the fire fighters at the fire were a wide variety of things such as getting the hoses out of the fire trucks, controlling the pressure off the water at the fire trucks. The main responsibilities of a fire fighter are to save people’s lives and that is above all the main factor of being a fire fighter to put other people’s lives above your own

Police

The role the police played in the Grenfell tower fire was very important as they had to get people away from the building, so they could cordon an area big enough for the fire fighters and ambulances to come in and do their jobs whilst doing this they also need to question eye witnesses so that they can get an eye account of what happened, so they can try to figure out what was going on. If a specialist team is needed they must also call for them for example there would be lots of evidence at Grenfell, so a specialist team called SOCO or special officer that collects evidence also they must redirect traffic as to avoid traffic building up. The responsibilities of the police is to give the other emergency services room in order for them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities another responsibility of a police officer is to save lives of anyone that was injured at the scene and would need inter agency cooperation, they must also make sure the public don’t come on to the scene as to tamper with evidence it also mean that they won’t be in the way of people doing their jobs whilst

Ambulance

The roles of a paramedic are quite straight forward and different to the Police and the Fire service as if a person gets injured or is in a life-threatening situation then they must that the person becomes stabilized and able to be moved to receive further medical assistance, they also must work at stressful situations such as a car crash.