Scene overview

Now what you need to have a look at is the scene overview, where are the risks to us, where are the danger points, what are we got to be aware of, we have already talked about under fort, we have also talked about the actual conditions whether it will be hard, soft, wet or dry, the conditions will change, but also we got to look at actually the loose ground, the size of some of the rocks. If you have a look at some of these boulders. I mean, you are not talking... A boulder is the size of a fridge, if this falls down from only a couple of feet and drops on your leg, it is going to fracture your leg and secondly, it is going to trap you, we got to make sure that this sort of stuff is stable because quite often it is not, it is very light, it falls freely and does an awful lot of damage, so we have got to be careful, we have got to be looking for things that are going to fall down on us, we are going to look for things that we can fall down. All of these things have to be taken into consideration.

So machinery, where they are parked, where they are buried, if they are still running, are they turned off or not, all of those things need to be looked at, analysed and we need to take that risk assessment, that dynamic risk assessment. Dynamic being on the scene at the time, we do not necessarily have to write it down like most people do risk assessments, ours is in our head, but we have to make sure it is done correctly to make sure that our staff are working in a safe environment efficiently and effectively. On this side here, we have got literally everything you can think of from unstable machines to huge rocks that are literally just perched on the edges of cliffs, which we will take a look at, so you can understand what we are talking about when we are talking about the dangerous environment.

Things that are in a position they would normally tend to leak. So fuel, oil and lubricants, are going to add a very treacherous problem to this area. On the soil of rain, I am looking at the amount of earth and mud between the rocks here as that starts to get washed away, the ground may well become unstable. An example here, we have got this big ridge of the earth here with earth, mud on the top of it, and what looks like a gully on the other side, and I do not know where there is any further equipment in there, I do not know where there are any further casualties in there, and potentially I might not be able to just walk around the end and look, therefore, I am going to have to find a way of looking because that will add to my risk assessment.

There are different options for it. So can somebody walk around and look at it from up there. Is the ground stable enough? Have we got a drone? Hazards area response team carries drones, Fire and Rescue Service carry drones, so actually going to get a quick look at the drone as a commander could give you a lot of information and intelligence as to what risks are.

So it gives you eyes on without putting anybody at risk, so we can not go walking people up in the unstable environment, that is too dangerous, but if we can pop a drone and have a look over the other side, we then know where there is any risk or where there are any casualties over there to worry about or not, do we need to go there? And if not, we do not go there.

It will dictate your working plan and your working strategy, as you have said, if there are not actually any people over there as far as the drone can see, well, they do not need to worry about that, I am not going to focus on this area right over here.