Safety, health and the environment come first in chemical leak exercise

During the exercise, responders from key partner organisations worked together on a multi-agency response to minimise the impact of the leak, and protect lives, property and wellbeing.

Participants used the LRF’s interactive tabletop kits, provided by REACT-XR, to visualise and plot their decisions. The kits are particularly helpful when planning where and how to allocate resources like vehicles and personnel.

The exercise was also an opportunity for partners to plan and coordinate effective public messaging and a recovery programme for the affected area.

The exercise was overseen by leading chemical distribution company Brenntag which has a base in Leicestershire.

A spokesperson from Brenntag said: “We’re extremely grateful to the LRF for helping us with this emergency scenario and enabling both Brenntag and the emergency services to test our responses and procedures.

"Safety, health and the environment always come first at Brenntag, and we can only achieve this by continually testing and improving our policies, processes and procedures.  Exercises like this are vital to help us to do that.”