FIRE crews, St John Ambulance, police and a specialist chemical response team took part in a chlorine emergency evacuation at Rockingham Aquatic Centre yesterday .
While there seemed some urgency to the evacuation, it was just a drill with centre staff to confirm safety standards were at the highest level.
The emergency exercise was part of the centre’s preparation for the season opening next week.
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READ NOWThe scenario involved testing the groups’ response in the unlikely event of a chlorine gas leak in the pump room at the swimming pool.
Mayor Barry Sammels said the exercise gave City staff and local emergency services a valuable opportunity to put their procedures and systems to the test in a real-life scenario.
“It is a requirement that all aquatic centres that use chlorine gas run an evacuation exercise at least once a year. To hold one of this scale has taken a lot of planning, which all paid off on the day,” he said.
“While it is highly unlikely a leak of this nature would ever occur, we needed to come up with a scenario that would thoroughly test our systems.
“It was excellent to see the community working together and then debrief afterwards, which provided an important insight into ways to improve emergency response management across the City.”
The Rockingham Aquatic Centre seasons runs from September 19 to April 2017.
Visit the City’s website for details on the range of activities available at the centre, including aquarobics, lap swimming, swimming lessons, squad training and water polo.