A CHEMICAL tanker crashed in Monmouth on Thursday 19th February, causing a number of residents to be evacuated from their homes.

Or that's what Monmouthshire County Council's emergency planning officers pretended had happened, as the imaginary critical event of a planned exercise.

Monmouth Leisure Centre played host to more than 100 volunteers for the multi-agency exercise, where strategies and protocols are tested to see if they will stand up the strains of an actual catastrophe.

People of all ages signed up to be "victims" in a scenario where a 40,000 litre chemical tanker carrying Isopropyl Alcohol overturns on Wonastow Road , with its contents leaking out.

The driver was suffering the effects of inhaling the chemical.

Volunteers of both two and four legged varieties, there were a number of dogs present, were all given roles to play. Roles included disgruntled and inconvenienced residents, as played by Councillor John Prosser who gave up his time and enjoyed getting into character, while there were also those who were suffering from the effects of the chemical and needed medical attention.

These characters had been sent to Monmouth Leisure Centre, which acted as a rest centre and processing point for those effected – just as it would be should an event like this actually happen.

MCC holds these exercises once every three years and the primary emergency planning centres are those at Monmouth, Chepstow and Abergavenny, as they have spaces and sports halls large enough to cope with hundreds of people and staff trained to help deal with evacuees.

A number of agencies gave up their time to play a part, again just as would happen in a real situation. Groups including St John's Ambulance, British Red Cross and even the RSPCA were involved to give aid to those who needed it.

Other less well known groups like RAYNET – the Radio Amateurs Network – were present too, which is made up of volunteers that can send and receive communications on different frequencies to the emergency services, giving them extra reach.

Obviously incidents as imagined for Crash-a-tanka are extremely rare, but the need to carry out regular drills to learn lessons when the pressure isn't on is vital. Natural causes such as last year's floods across the UK show the use of training for such scenarios.

Ian Hardman, emergency planning manager for MCC, said: "We run these large exercises every three years, giving as much opportunity as possible to all staff across agencies to put procedures into practice.

"Once again, I am extremely grateful and have been overwhelmed by the response from the public in giving up their time to support the exercise by volunteering to 'play' evacuees from the incident.

"The excellent acting skills and willingness to throw themselves into the role plays they were given, ensured that staff working at the centre were sufficiently challenged.

"In addition, comments from all the staff from the various agencies involved in running and managing the centre have all been positive - illustrating that the exercise has been an invaluable opportunity.

"As in the case of any real incident, the exercise has uncovered a number of areas where improvements to our response can be made and, following a more formal debrief with all the agencies involved, work will begin on updating our procedures. Over all, the exercise has been a great success for all involved."