DRDM satisfied with outcome of mock search and rescue exercise |13 December 2019
The debriefing exercise (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
Notwithstanding a few challenges, the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM) is satisfied with the response and outcome of its annual simulation search and rescue operation exercise held on Wednesday evening at Independence House.
It was the senior disaster management officer, Daniel Cetoupe, who said this during the department’s debriefing exercise held yesterday morning with all the involved emergency responders at the DRDM headquarters, Mont Fleuri.
The aim of the exercise was for DRDM to assess the response and command and control on the scene thus to make amendments to the draft National Integrated Emergency Plan to be launched early 2020.
DRDM is adopting a new system to deal with emergency situations; Platinum-designated for policy decision-making at President and Cabinet level, gold- designated to decision-making of the different heads at level of the National Emergency Operation Centre, silver-designated to specialised technicians for filtering information for action at the bronze level.
So the exercise on Wednesday was to test the silver and bronze level in terms of the command post and the operation. World Bank is assisting DRDM with the drafting of the National Integrated Emergency Plan and its officers were also present at the mock exercise which saw the whole of Independence Avenue and 5th June Avenue blocked to traffic including the cordoning off of Independence House.
According to Mr Cetoupe, the traffic on Wednesday, even though heavy, was far better managed as compared to the traffic during the SPTC fire earlier this year which stood at a standstill for a much longer period.
He said that DRDM, though, will work with the police to better improve traffic situations for preparedness for any future eventualities.
In regards to the scenario, over 100 personnel from the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency (SFRSA), the Seychelles Police Force (SPF), DRDM officials and medical professionals were called at around 5pm yesterday evening and were on emergency duty until 8pm to assist with the fire incident through a terrorist bomb act at the Immigration Department, located on the first floor of the Independence House building, with three ministers trapped inside, and a further two persons who were also trapped, but whose exact location within the building was unknown.
It was the first time that DRDM conducted such an exercise in relation to not only search and rescue but countering terrorism thus involving also for the first time the Police Special Support Services bomb squad with sniffer dogs.
“There are still people in this world with radical ideas and these types of threats happen everywhere. It has happened to countries close to us and Seychelles is not spared from such attacks,” Mr Cetoupe said.
Among the main challenges raised in the debriefing was the lack of coordinated communication among responders where one did not know what type of information the other was communicating through its internal communication thus causing the other not to know where or who is present and on which area of the scene including not knowing what they are doing.
Mr Cetoupe said that apart from using its own internal communication system, DRDM is investing in a communication system where all responders operate on the same frequency.
Referring to some critics on social media that the time to hold such an exercise was not appropriate and that it should have been done on a Sunday, Mr Cetoupe reminded the public that incidents do not choose time or place to happen as it can happen anywhere and at any time and so the emergency responders have to be prepared to tackle any eventuality anywhere and at any time.
He noted that from saving properties, the emergency responders have the responsibility to save lives including not only of those involved in the incident but also for those in the surrounding thus the public have only to take their responsibility to cooperate and obey orders for their own safety.
Mr Cetoupe said that DRDM will continue to conduct such exercises in the future with the participation of other emergency stakeholders including the Seychelles Red Cross (SRC) and the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) both of which their participation in the exercise were omitted due to logistic reasons which were not in their favour associated with Wednesday’s exercise. It is to be noted that both organisations were initially to participate in the exercise.
Patrick Joubert