What sort of major incident could happen?
Though most of us will go through life unaffected by a major incident, we must all be aware that unfortunately they can and do happen more frequently than one might think. The terms ‘disaster’, ‘major emergency’ and ‘major incident’ describe similar events; an emergency that requires provision for:
- The initial treatment, rescue and transport of a large number of casualties.
- The involvement either directly or indirectly of a large number of people.
- The handling of a large number of media enquiries likely to be generated both from the public and the news media.
- The mobilisation and organisation of the local authority in support of the emergency services to cater for the threat of death, serious injury or homelessness to a large number of people.
The most common cause of a major incident is severe weather conditions, especially flooding. Disruption to supplies and services was manifested by the fuel crisis, the foot and mouth epidemic in 2000 which made part of the national infrastructure impassable. Rail and air crashes, and sadly with ever increasing resonance, terrorist attacks, are possible and potentially extremely damaging to people and resources. In all of these cases, people affected would look to the Council for support and assistance both in terms of continuation of reliable everyday service and additional specialised help following the lead of the emergency services.
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