Multi-civil defence agencies join for earthquake exercise

The Red Cross and other civil defence agencies came together for an earthquake exercise on Wednesday evening. Photo / Supplied.

With fake blood, bandages and wounds, Whanganui civil defence teams joined forces to carry out a mass casualty earthquake exercise on Wednesday evening.

The Red Cross were joined by Urban Fire, FENZ and St Johns Cadets down at the Broadway Buildings on Ridgway St from 7pm till 9pm as part of a multi-agency training exercise.

Tori Bisset, team leader at DWST, said it was a great opportunity to work alongside other teams to get the exercise done effectively.

"The night was a really good event, it started off a bit messy but we got it together by the end," she says.

The scene is not an earthquake proof site so it was designed to be an 8 magnitude earthquake with 33 volunteers either acting as the wounded or being part of the response team.

Tim Crowe, Emergency Manager at the Whanganui District Council, says the exercise was designed to give teams a chance to do something different by having to evacuate a building that had a lot of injured people inside.

"If was a chance for them to learn triage which is a rare skill to have," he says.

He says it was put together quickly by the teams and there was a lot of learning involved.

Bisset and her team train every Wednesday evening in emergency management and welfare for a national disaster.

A another multi-agency training exercise wont be held for a few weeks as they take a bit of planning she says.