Today, the volunteers of Skerries Coast Guard undertook routine training in scene management of incidents involving hazardous materials. This training is vital as the Skerries team could be the first emergency services to arrive at the scene of an incident involving a hazardous material.
The exercise involved scenario based training in HazChem search techniques, including use of the international HazChem identification and action codes. The primary aim when responding to such incidents is to quickly identify the specific or generic classification of the material(s) involved in the incident, and to protect both on-scene emergency services personnel and the general public during this initial response phase of the incident.