Progress Report of The Russian Federation Project EPPR Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Progress Report of The Russian Federation Project “DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY SYSTEMS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURAL PROJECTS”

International rescue exercises «Barents Rescue 2009»

International rescue exercises «Barents Rescue 2009» was held in Russia, Murmansk region September 8-10, 2009. It was the first large-scale international project that has been implemented in the Arctic under existing cooperation between Arctic countries in Barents region. 384 participants: search and rescue crews, fire teams, police teams, engineer teams, aircraft and helicopter crews and 47 units of equipment, including fire boats, aircrafts, helicopters from the Russian Federation, Finland, Norway and Sweden took part in the exercise.

The objective of «The Barents Rescue 2009» was to check functional use of the existing cooperation, improve information exchange, the level of coordination of activities, learn practical experiences of coordination and rescue services in the Barents region that can be used in cases of emergency.

The exercises consisted of five stages with various management aspects in emergency cases

Stage 1 “Actions of functional and territorial departments of Murmansk Emercom in case of radioactive emission due to destruction of a waste container”

Stage 2 “Joint actions of functional and territorial departments of Murmansk Emercom and Rescue Services of Kingdom of Norway in case of emergency at sea”

Stage 3 “Joint actions of authorities and departments of Murmansk Emercom and rescue services of the neighboring countries in case of a large traffic accident with the threat of radioactive contamination”

Stage 4 “Joint actions of authorities and departments of Murmansk Emercom, rescue services of Republic of Finland and Kingdom of Sweden in case of a large forest fire in the bordering area”

Stage 5 “Joint actions of authorities and departments of Murmansk Emercom, rescue services of the neighboring countries in case of the fire onboard and oil spill in the sea”

The first stage was carried out in a warning mode (ALARMEX). This stage was short but the most important. The objective of this stage was to check efficiency of the system of mutual warnings and interaction of coordination and rescue services in the Barents region in case of emergency.

The second and following stages were held in a field mode (FTX). The participants of FTX completed the following tasks: to improve readiness of rescue teams for respond to different emergency cases; to check accuracy of the assumed time periods needed by rescue teams to arrive in the place of the accident; to improve skills of executive officers in directing the group of rescue teams in different emergency cases; to train practical interaction of rescue teams in different emergency cases.

The priority task was to exchange and summarize practical experiences in development and implementation of international exercises. Course of the Exercises is now under analyses. Recommendations will be developed for further interaction improvement in real emergency situation conditions.