By Paul Reoch

AN EXERCISE that has been prompted by the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center will be carried out by emergency services in Perth tomorrow.

Exercise Resilience, which will be conducted by members of Tayside Fire and Rescue, will last for 12 hours and will test their capabilities to respond to multiple casualties trapped in a collapsed structure.

The exercise will also involve hazardous materials where procedures for the identification and safe removal of chemical hazards will be tested.

A multi-agency table-top exercise will also run in conjunction with the practical exercise to examine the strategic issues of such an incident occurring in the area.

A spokesman for Tayside Fire and Rescue yesterday told The Courier, “Following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, the Scottish Government has invested considerable resources to deliver new equipment, training and procedures to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

“This has provided an enhanced capability to deal with incidents involving persons trapped in collapsed structures and incidents involving chemical spillages.”

He added, “This exercise will not only test our capabilities for dealing with any possible localised incident but will also provide an opportunity to consider the effectiveness of our capability should a response be required to deal with a major emergency at a national level.

“And ultimately it will assist in the Scottish Government’s proposed Resilience Strategy for Scotland.”

The Scottish Resilience Development Service was established in Strathearn House, Perth, in April 2007, in response to recommendations made to the Scottish Emergencies Co-ordinating Committee that there was a need to “design and implement a training and exercising strategy for the civil contingencies community within Scotland in order to support civil contingencies operations.”

Exercise Resilience will take place at the Perth training centre of Tayside Fire and Rescue.