Ready for anything

Oldham has struggled through difficult days as the big freeze and snow drifts blocked roads, closed schools and hampered businesses.

There were individual emergencies, like the farmers who had to dig themselves out to feed their hill-top sheep.

But to stop the whole borough being overwhelmed by the weather, or any other natural or man-made disaster, there is a meticulous local authority campaign ready to swing into action.

Expecting the unexpected is the key to Oldham’s plans to cope with an unplanned emergency.

It could be the heat of the Maple Mill fire in April, last year — or the big freeze which began in December.

The council’s Emergency Management Plan sets out how the borough will cope with a disaster such as fire, flooding or chemical contamination — and how a pandemic such as swine flu will be tackled.

The plan swung into action when Oldham was hit by blizzards which stopped buses, halted traffic and closed schools.

Once the heavy snows melt away, councillors and officers will examine how well it worked, what could be improved and what lessons have been learned.

Councillor Mark Alcock is Cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, a brief which covers the highways, roads and gritting, as well as refuse collections.

He said: “Most people don’t want to know how we plan, they just want to know they will get food and fuel.

“If the roads aren’t open, we have major problems with food supplies and the emergency services.

“This week we will look at what we have done, what went well and what we want to do better.

“People don’t hear about things like care workers who walked over fields for two hours to get to the people they normally look after, or people who walked for hours to get into work.

“And sometimes you have to work out that if people aren’t able to get in, you have to stop doing some things to concentrate on others, such as moving people into life and limb services.”

The plan also swung into action after the Maple Mill fire in Hathershaw in April, last year.

Flames shot 60ft above the building as a 100 firefighters battled for more than five hours to bring the blaze under control.

Police and council officials evacuated 28 near-by homes, and a rest centre was set up in a local school.

Over the following days, police, fire, environmental health and council officials continued to brief local residents as the mill smouldered on.

Like Maple Mill, most emergencies are unpredictable and every council has to have an emergency plan by law — Oldham’s has just been updated and is due to be approved by councillors in the next few weeks.

It aims to have resources and experienced people on standby to respond quickly and in the best way when there is a crisis.

The plan provides vital information to help workers to make good, quick decisions and co-ordinate their efforts to be most effective.

The country’s biggest test of emergency planning came at Europe’s biggest peacetime explosion at the Buncefield oil depot in the early hours of December 11, 2005.

Fire crews were faced with a tower of flames and smoke as the Hertfordshire installation blew up.

For four days, 180 firefighters fought the blaze, it injured 45 people and displaced 16,500 workers, blew windows out a mile-and-a-half-away and 2,000 residents went to temporary council accommodation.

It destroyed 20 businesses, affecting 500 employees and more than 90 other businesses were severely affected.

Closer to home in West Yorkshire, during the 2007 floods, hundreds of homes were evacuated in the Agbrigg area of Wakefield and some Pennine villages were inundated twice in 10 days. Lessons learned from emergency plans for both disasters have been passed on to the all councils across the country.

If Oldham ever faces such a catastrophe, three tiers of officers will take charge — Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Gold officers are strategic leaders — aiming to save life and prevent suffering, contain the incident, maintain services, provide information, minimise the effect on the local environment and economy, maintain public confidence — and prepare for returning to normal.

The Silver team take a tactical role, based at the Emergency Control Centre in Vulcan Street, co-ordinating the response.

And Bronze officers are at the scene, liaising with other emergency services, reporting back to Silver, and putting the emergency plan into action. The emergency plan is also immediately activated if Greater Manchester Police declare a major incident.

Communications are critical. The plan includes releasing information 15 minutes after the start of the incident, then updating officers and sending out key details including how the council is tackling the incident four hours later, then at set periods.

In his foreword to the revised plan, Oldham Council chief executive Charlie Parker states: “For Oldham to be a confident place, we need to be ready for the unexpected, ready for that unplanned emergency and ready to support our community through the problem.

“Our Emergency Management plan is a vital part of being prepared.”