Flames Burst Out Into Hazmat Crisis
The emergency call center had a callout about a large structure fire on a commercial building. Ambulance and fire assets were rapidly dispatched to this growing incident. Moments later, the situation escalated to a hazmat crisis and involved search and rescue operations.
London Fire Brigade, Incident Commander:
LFB was called to a persons reported fire at location 140, on arrival firefighter's began investigation to determine the type of fire they were dealing with. In the initial phase no abnormalities in the type of fire they where dealing with where found. Search and Rescue operations as well as firefighting actions began. BA firefighters & FRU entered the building and recovered multiple casualties who were handed over to HART and LAS assets. While working though the fire FRU firefighters took multiple tests of the internal atmosphere, this resulted in a chemical known as formaldehyde being identified. The chemical, a serious hazardous substances caused for FRU HAZMAT units to be deployed and the use of the DIM van to complete Search and rescue and firefighting practices. The stop message was received at 21:26.
London Ambulance Service, Tactical Commander:
We was called to a scene involving a large structural fire at postal 140. On arrival it quickly became evident of the multitude of the incident and the amount of critical casualties. I declared a Major Incident and took scene command of all LAS assets. A triage point was set up and Helimed-27 and HEMS ground crew were requested. HART were deployed alongside LFB to ensure swift extraction of casualties as well as providing safety for LFB. We treated a total of nine patients three of which were LFB firefighters. Six patients were transported to hospital by land for major trauma and specialist burns treatment, one patient was discharged on scene with minor injuries and despite the best efforts of medical personnel on scene it became evident that nothing could be done to save the other two individuals and they were sadly pronounced deceased on scene.