Practise, Practise, Practise. Repeat

One of the challenges faced by our teams is ensuring we are honed and ready if a (hopefully rare) emergency arrives.

At all sites, we ensure our teams undergo realistic training for skills, drills and exercises. These are critical and valuable tools to ensure that our emergency services officers and medical teams have the skills necessary to provide an effective emergency response to site incidents.

Outside of the training that all of staff regularly do, there are also legislative requirements in certain jurisdictions that detail requirements for conducting emergency exercises for mines and other establishments.

In Queensland we have “Recognised Standard 8 – Conduct Mine Emergency Exercises” from  the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy which outlines the types of exercises or mocks that is based on the requirements of the Coal Mining Safely and Health Act 1999.

In the aftermath of the 1994 Moura mine disaster, it was identified there was a need to exercise emergency procedures at least annually. Recognised standard 8 requires four levels of exercises be conducted, these are:

• Level 1 – State Level Exercise
  • These are conducted yearly and arranged by the Chief Inspector of Coal Mines. A working mine should have one of these during their operating life.
• Level 2 – Major Mine Site Exercise
  • Every mine site should have a major practical exercise per year.
• Level 3 – Minor Mine Site Exercise
  • Every crew should have an exercise per year.
• Level 4 – Supporting Exercise
  • Desktop or semi-practical exercise that should done regularly

Realistic practical exercises and training help to ensure that emergency crews can respond effectively to mine emergencies and help to identify any deficiencies in the planning or response mechanisms.

We regularly assists clients to run Level 2 and 3 exercises on sites to meet legislative requirements for mines to ensure that everyone goes home safe in the event of a real emergency. The adage that you should “train like you fight” has never been more true for our teams tasked with protecting our clients most precious assets.

A very current example of the benefits of this training was during bushfires in the Tara area when the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) sent out a call for help for assistance in protecting houses in an area threatened by bushfires.

Our teams worked closely with a local auxiliary fire unit and members of the rural fire service team under the direction of a QFES Inspector to protect property directly threatened by fire and then worked into the night to prevent the fire from spreading across a road.

At CPA, our core focus is well understood – we exist to protect. Our training regimes are yet another example and demonstrate why we are there when needed.

Practise, Practise, Practise. Repeat.