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Dudley Fire Service joins forces with Thomas Dudley for major training exercise

Thomas Dudley Ltd, the market-leading manufacturer of grey iron, ductile iron, ADI and SiMo castings based in the West Midlands, teamed up with Dudley Fire Service, to carry out a major incident rehearsal.

Dudley Fire Service approached the Midlands based company to help implement the training exercise at their premises. The operational visit comprised of x15 fire engines including the mobile command centre, x50 firemen, x5 West Midlands Fire Service - Casualty Simulation Group members and x3 casualty dummies. In addition to Dudley Fire Service, Stourbridge, Tipton, West Bromwich, Haden Cross, Bilston, Wolverhampton, Bloxwich and Brierley Hill Fire Services also attended the test procedure.

Matt Hyde, HSE Advisor at Thomas Dudley commented: “At Thomas Dudley, our core values are formed, based on the way in which we operate with our number one core value being safety first. Alongside our ongoing commitment to working with local businesses and communities, we have a corporate responsibility to ensure that we have competent people and stringent procedures in place to deal with any foreseeable life-threatening situations. When approached by Dudley Fire Station about the event, we were more than happy assist the fire service and at the same time test our emergency procedures and response. During the major incident rehearsal, we were put under pressure with minimal staff on site, but we handled everything professionally as all systems were in place, no major concerns were raised. Overall I believe the event was a great success for everyone involved, and hopefully we can do more work with the local fire service in the future.”

Jason Parker, Joint Managing Director at Thomas Dudley further added: “We can test procedures with ‘test’ fire drills, but this alarming ‘real-life’ scenario which Dudley Fire Service carried out was really significant to us. It provides a completely different perspective and an eye-opening opportunity to deal with casualties under pressure. In the unlikely event of a major incident happening on-site in the future, we are now even better prepared as a company to respond.”

West Midlands Fire Service’s Watch Commander Andy Clay said: “The West Midlands Fire Service and Thomas Dudley Ltd have recently joined forces to develop policies and procedures to maximise the safety of the public, the workforce and the firefighters that may be required to attend should an incident occur. The incident commander worked with representatives from Thomas Dudley to develop and implement a safe, effective and assertive action plan. This simulation was a fantastic method of testing all parties procedures, policies and business continuity plans. Business continuity is an essential element of our Safer, Stronger and Healthier commitment to the communities of the West Midlands.”

The event took place at Thomas Dudley Ltd on Saturday 15 April 2017. Since the event, Dudley has added minor changes to improve our emergency preparation procedures which include making more sand easily available to the furnace areas.

 

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