Cool heads at Coolkeeragh in COMAH disaster exercise

ESB INTERNATIONAL

A technician, drenched in diesel fuel, rushed into the Coolkeeragh station security building to raise the alarm about a fuel storage leak near an area where 'hot' work was in progress. As the guard helped wipe fuel from his face, the technician tried calmly, but quickly, to describe the events taking place outside in the storage yard. As the guard dialled the control room emergency number, thick black smoke and flames could be seen rising above the tank farm.

This is not the opening scene from an action blockbuster, but the start of Operation Vanilla - a Control of Major Accidents and Hazards (COMAH) and Business Continuity exercise carried out at Coolkeeragh Power Station on September 26th.

This was a 'tabletop exercise', held in the offices at the power station, to simulate a major site incident. The objectives were set to test the site's COMAH plan, its related emergency procedures and the Coolkeeragh ESB Business Continuity Plan.

Testing the ability of the emergency services, government agencies, site stakeholders, neighbouring industries and Head Office to effectively communicate with each other as the emergency situation developed was a key part of the exercise, said Jim Crawford, the Exercise Director. He and Coolkeeragh Operations Manager, Jim Cooke used many aspects of the Buncefield incident in England in the COMAH simulation.

Among those involved as participants or observers during the exercise were representatives from the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service, the Health & Safety Executive, the Environment & Heritage Service, the Loughs Agency, the PSNI, the Port Authority, ESBI Head Office staff, ESB Corporate Affairs staff, site security, demolition contractors for the old CPL plant and of course the station's operations and maintenance staff.

The various parties involved were physically isolated from each other in rooms that simulated, for example, the incident scene, the power station offices and external command-and-control centres that are normally off-site. As the exercise developed, participants were called-in to tackle the various challenges introduced by the Exercise Director, who did his best to add complications, to test systems further and to allow contingency plans to be run as required. These complications tested the participants' communication and assertiveness skills, their ability to work under pressure as a newly formed team, while also handling miscommunications, managing inquiries from the media and dealing with many of the countless issues likely to be faced during an emergency.

Shift Team Leader, David Rainey, and Communications Coordinator Willie Duncan, who worked directly with the senior fire officers from the NIF&S, managed the incident scene. Their work was closely watched by representatives from other operations shifts acting as observers on the day.

At the same time, the site management team of Dave Shepherd, Jim Cooke and Kevin Trainor were in communications with the Crisis Management Group in Head Office. The team also liaised with various government health, safety and environmental agencies. Peter Davis and Daire Venables were ESBI observers overseeing the effectiveness of communications and procedures and how well emergency and business continuity interests were played out during the exercise.

The three-hour long simulation went through many phases: first response; declaration of a COMAH incident; management of the major fuel fire; containment of fuel oil and fire water leaking from the bund, search and rescue for missing persons; site evacuation; shut down of the power station and the establishment of a strategic offsite communications centre. A short debriefing session was held after each phase, so that everyone received the maximum benefits from the exercise.

The exercise concluded with a 'hot' debriefing session chaired by Jim Crawford. This is currently being followed by 'cold' debriefing sessions that are being held internally by all the participants, each of whom has been encouraged to submit written comments to the station for the revision of site procedures.

Plant Manager, Dave Shepherd thanked everyone for their participation and professionalism during the exercise and stressed the importance of the learning being used to improve systems in readiness for a physical exercise planned for later this year involving site personnel and the NI emergency services.