Simulated Emergency Incident Drill at THOR UK

Last week, THOR UK took part in a surprise live emergency incident simulation at our site in Wincham, England.

The drill simulated a “once in 10,000 years” catastrophic system and process failure, and we worked with local emergency services from Cheshire West and Chester Council to test our responses and allow the emergency teams to practice their life saving actions on site.

At 10am, THOR UK’s intermittent toxic emergency alarm sounded, which instructs all colleagues on the premises to stop their activities and head directly to the safe haven muster-points to await further instructions.

At this point, office staff were informed of the drill taking place and were allowed to get on with their day. Meanwhile, plant-side colleagues took part in a series of incident response tasks, working with first responders, firefighters, emergency medics and a drone operator to enact potentially lifesaving steps.

Earlier that morning, our site team also ran a “man-down” event simulation, running through the steps taken in the event of a ‘man down’. In this instance, the man-down alarm was raised, help was radioed for via the production manager, and incident response and internal first aid personnel were dispatched.

Alongside this, a further exercise was run to simulate the release of phosgene gas during planned maintenance of the site’s chlorine cylinders. In this scenario, a Major Accident Hazard is declared, which then begins the site-wide emergency response procedure.

Actors were even brought onto site to simulate casualties and test the crews’ reactions. Members of the local leadership team worked with the emergency incident command unit, that assembled on site, as well as Cheshire Fire & Rescue, Cheshire Police, the Environment Agency, United Utilities (water), HSE and the UK Health Security Agency, and the North West Ambulance Service and NHS Cheshire & Merseyside, covering the many potential facets of emergency response.

While we hope to never need to utilise the skills rehearsed this week, at THOR we make sure that Health & Safety is our number one priority. Our people understood the severity of the actions undertaken, not only for the benefit of their fellow colleagues, but also to help the emergency services train in unfamiliar circumstances and navigate complex hazard response procedures.

Although we await a full analysis of our response from an external auditor, THOR UK’s leadership team is pleased with the overall response to the drill. Feedback from the emergency services was positive, and it is a great benefit to highlight areas that need additional focus.

A sincere thank you to all our THOR UK colleagues who took part in the exercise!