ARFF organises capacity building programmes for hospitals

The Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) unit of Mangaluru International Airport organised a capacity building programme for hospitals in Mangaluru.

The programme is a focused effort on the part of ARFF to get all those involved in the full-scale aerodrome emergency exercise planned with the District Disaster Management Authority to understand their roles in advance.

ARFF involved doctors and paramedical staff from hospitals with whom MIA has arrangements to deal with any real-life emergency, staff from the medical investigation room (MIA) at MIA, as well as personnel from Airport Health Organization (APHO) in this exercise.

The stakeholders were given a broad understanding of their roles and responsibilities to mitigate the fallout of an emergency if it unfolded.

In addition to knowledge sharing, the ARFF also conducted a modular test for the stakeholders with respect to the full-scale aerodrome emergency exercise. The test involved hospital staff handling the casualty at the casualty collecting area as well managing the critical triage area where the ‘patients’ are attended to, based on their ‘condition’ and sent to designated hospitals for further treatment.

The ARFF had in the past organised two capacity building programme sessions for personnel of Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services (KSF&ES) with a final session scheduled before May 4.

The ARFF on Wednesday also conducted the first of four such sessions for the airline staff. A similar programme will also be held for personnel of the aviation security group of CISF in three batches.