Dunn County, in the US state of Wisconsin, played host on Saturday to a simulated full-scale oil explosion safety exercise.
The County is a hotbed for oil field activity and officials say the drill demonstrates safety is firmly atop of the agenda.
Emergency management personnel and local law enforcement joined forces with Occidental Petroleum for a dry run of what might happen in the event of a hazardous materials mishap.
“We wanted to do this as a county because the chances of something like this happening are extremely high,” explained Dunn County Emergency Manager, Denise Brew. “The chances for something happening in a neighbouring county are also very high, so it’s important that we work together.
Mr Brew said the safety exercise also presented an opportunity to improve communications between emergency personnel and local law enforcement.
The simulation was structured around the fictitious explosion of a hydrocarbon storage tank. Actors were on site to ground the drill in a sense of reality.
Dunn County sheriff, Clayton Coker, voiced the old adage that the “more you practice, the better you are when it really happens”.
“My vision is to have more of these types of exercises in the future. We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best”, he added.
The Dunn County safety exercise comes against the backdrop of April’s ammonium nitrate explosion at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas.
At least 15 people were killed with more than 160 injured.
