Health and Safety Conference 11 th March 2014 March 2014 Catastrophic Risk Management Chris Featherstone and Chris Fitzgerald

Health and Safety conference Scenario hours on a Friday in late January. Thames Water have received a report from the Metropolitan Police of a serious burst water main in Letsby Avenue South London. There is damage to the road and ‘extensive flooding’ but due to civil unrest in the area they have requested that any response is delayed until the situation is stabilized

Inject 1 16:15 hrs. The London Fire Brigade report as a result of the rioting a number of small fires have been started but they are having difficulties using their fire appliances due to low water pressure because of the burst water main A request has been made that a Situation report is provided to the next Gold Command (because a major incident has been declared) which starts in 11 minutes. There is a rumour on Twitter that TW has turned off the water supply to parts of South London in order to distract people from the riots. The Daily Mail has asked for a comment.

Inject hours the following day. The main was isolated over night but not repaired so this means that a large number of properties are without water The riots calmed down at around hours mainly due to the weather (hovering around zero degrees) and due to action by the Police. A request has been made that Thames Water attend a meeting chaired by the PM at COBR to explain why people have no water supply and the repair has not been made

Inject 3 1 month later…………… As event TW event controller you have been asked to submit a high level event summary for the public enquiry focussing on your actions and decision making process outlining key messages

Summary and key points Events are very dynamic, things change quickly and are multi faceted. There is a need for structure with clear roles and responsibilities Understanding risks and having the appropriate event team in place to manage key risks All partners need to be aligned and part of the team Devil is in the details! Thank you for taking part