Major public emergency exercise

QX179R SG

Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, April 29

SINGAPORE: The next major public emergency exercise, which is known as the Northstar exercise, will be held on May 23.

The exercise scenario is a large—scale simulated sea mishap on board a cruise ship. This was revealed by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng at the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) annual workplan seminar on Monday.

Mr Wong also disclosed that a new system will be introduced to the emergency ambulance service which will allow ambulance personnel to assess a patient’s condition earlier.

This new medical protocol system will be introduced to the 995 service next year.

Through a simple set of questions, the crew will be able to assess a patient’s condition before they arrive at the scene. Private ambulance operators will also be linked to the new system.

The emergency ambulance service, which is run by the SCDF, received 109,459 calls in 2007 — 14 percent higher than the number of calls received in 2006.

As for this year’s Northstar exercise, the home affairs minister said unlike previous exercises that involved land—based emergency scenarios, the next one will be on board a cruise ship.

"It will involve 13 agencies to test and validate their emergency response plans. The SCDF, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and other agencies have been working with the shipping community and cruise operators to minimise disruptions and inconvenience," said Mr Wong.

He also reminded the SCDF officers that they will face new challenges with major infrastructural changes in the next few years.

These challenges include the establishment of taller skyscrapers and mega installations on Jurong island to handle alternative fuel such as biofuel.

At the seminar, Mr Wong was also briefed on Singapore’s first Fire Investigation Dog Unit, which will be fully operational by the middle of this year.

The dogs at this unit are trained to sniff out traces of flammable material, left behind after a fire, and each dog requires about six months of training. — CNA/so

QX179R SG

Channel NewsAsia - 2 hours 43 minutes ago

Northstar VI to simulate multi—agency response to casualties at sea

SINGAPORE: Singapore will hold its largest maritime exercise in about two weeks. Code—named Northstar VI, it will involve 13 agencies from the public and private sector.

The simulated fire—rescue operation aims to test a multi—agency response involving mass casualties out at sea. This exercise is similar in scale to the previous Northstar land exercise two years ago.

Northstar VI will take place onboard a luxury cruise ship. On the day of the exercise, there will be a simulated fire on board the SuperStar Aquarius, some three kilometres offshore.

Firefighting and rescue vessels will be deployed to help. The Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and Marina South Pier will serve as receiving points for survivors and casualties before they are taken to Changi General Hospital.

Some 40 sea vessels will help evacuate passengers back to land and a Super Puma helicopter will be on standby to air—lift the severely injured.

The Changi—Simei Community Club will be turned into a family assistance centre to help anyone locate and get in touch with relatives.

As this exercise is out at sea, it will pose different challenges from the previous one, which simulated near simultaneous attacks at multiple land transport hubs.

Colonel Eric Yap, Director Operations, Singapore Civil Defence Force, said: "One major challenge as far as a maritime scenario as compared to a land—based scenario is that of accessibility to the incident site. In a maritime scenario, these challenges will be multi—fold and of course it will require a lot of ships and boats to be able to mobilise land—based resources to move towards the incident site that is out at sea."

While the luxury cruiser can carry some 2,800 passengers and crew, no real passenger will be on board during Northstar VI.

On the day of the exercise, SuperStar Aquarius will drop off its cruise passengers, before taking on the role—players at around 10am. After the exercise is over, the ship will go back to shore to pick up more passengers for its night cruise, which starts at 9pm.

David Wendel, Vice President, Nautical Ops, Star Cruises, said: "We will return to cruise bay and be back about 4.30pm when we start to embark our normal passengers and leave for a cruise as per normal.

"We still need to do all the cleaning, the turn around, but they’re still going to participate in this exercise. There will be some extra overtime, but we think that this is so important for us to participate (in)."

The Marina South Pier will be closed during the exercise, while the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal will be partially closed. — CNA/vm

sinicker SG

hah. they've been planning for it since january... lucky i didnt kena... tell OC "sir, i ord in april leh." then he realise so i no need to help brainstorm case studies. hahaha.

FirePig SG

trying to shift our attention away from pedra branca island?

HKFS88 SG

I'm sure Stn21, Stn22 & Stn23 will be very much involve in this exercise

QX179R SG

http://www.scdf.gov.sg/Latest/Exercise_Northstar6/index.html

QX179R SG

Channel NewsAsia - 58 minutes ago

SINGAPORE: Star Cruises will take part in the largest maritime emergency exercise alongside 12 government agencies on 23 May.

Crew members of SuperStar Aquarius will be tested in a simulated fire rescue operation during the Northstar VI exercise.

Of the 1,200 crew members, Star Cruises said 750 are trained to handle emergencies.

Martin Van Den Berg, captain of SuperStar Aquarius, said: "From the initial stage when we discover the fire by detector or manually, it takes about a minute until we have people there. (Within a) maximum (of) five minutes, we should have the fire groups starting to attack the fire."

"Everybody is responding on the PA (public announcement) system, on the radios and on the pager system," he added.

A medical team will also be on hand to help the injured.

There are about 70 lifeboats and life rafts on board. They can hold up to 3,500 people and will be used to evacuate passengers and crew members in the event of an emergency.

The lifeboats and life rafts, however, will not be dispatched during the Northstar VI exercise, so as to test the responsiveness of the government agencies involved.

In the exercise, about 1,000 passengers will be evacuated on 40 vessels from the Navy and Coast Guard, among others.

Starting this week, posters will be displayed at various places, such as Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and Singapore Cruise Centre, to alert the public about the exercise. — CNA/ac

QX179R SG

Channel NewsAsia - 34 minutes ago

SINGAPORE: Marina Coastal Drive will be closed to traffic on Friday between 10am and 4pm for the conduct of Exercise Northstar VI.

During the exercise, 12 agencies will be coordinated to test emergency response and rescue plans in dealing with a simulated sea mishap on board a cruise ship.

Police said parking would be restricted along peripheral roads.

For more information on the road closures, you can call the Maritime Port Authority at 6375 1600. — CNA/de

Unidentified SG

you see those goodies bag ?

i was one of the people packing those bags

QX179R SG

you see those goodies bag ?

i was one of the people packing those bags

nope, i personally haven't seen those goodies bag & what's in them..

QX179R SG

Channel NewsAsia - 2 hours 7 minutes ago

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s largest maritime civil emergency exercise, code—named Northstar VI, was successfully concluded on Friday.

The six—hour long exercise involved over 3,000 volunteers, officials, uniformed and medical personnel in a mock fire—rescue operation.

The scenario for the exercise took place on board the SuperStar Aquarius cruise ship just three kilometres off—shore.

Some 40 fire—fighting and rescue boats were mobilized to help evacuate over 1,000 passengers and crew ’trapped’ onboard to safety.

Helicopters were also deployed to help get passengers off the ship. Joining them were rescue teams from the Maritime and Port Authority and the Singapore Police Coast Guard who had only 30 minutes to carry out their task.

’Casualties’ at the scene were taken care of by medical personnel and two Chinook helicopters were also deployed to airlift those with ’severe injuries’ to the Changi General Hospital.

This year’s Northstar exercise involved 12 agencies from both the public and private sector, as well as volunteers from schools and grassroots organizations.

It was also the first such exercise to be held at sea and was carried out to test the ability of different agencies to deal with a large—scale fire on—board a cruise ship.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said the exercise is crucial to test the readiness of agencies that safeguard Singapore’s reputation as an international maritime hub.

“When it’s at sea, you have the additional challenge of distance, you have the challenge of water, and you may not get your resources immediately available. So the purpose of the exercise is to find out what we need to do, to beef up our capacity.”

One possible improvement, said the port authority, is to have medical personnel closer to the incident site.

In this exercise, medical points were set up at nearby Marina South Pier and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

"Victims" were brought in for treatment at the Changi General Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department.

The hospital says that in such cases, staff from other departments would be deployed to the A&E, but assures that other hospital operations would carry on as usual.

Mr Wong said coordination is important and such exercises allow Singapore to gauge how well it can cope in the event of a maritime terrorist attack.

And he stressed that the agencies involved have shown that they can do so effectively. — CNA/cl