News Releases

Security Drill at UWI to enhance campus emergency response services

For Release Upon Receipt - April 8, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – There was a brief disruption in services at the Alma Jordan Library of The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus today, April 8, 2013, involving a full-scale exercise simulating smoke, explosions and injured persons in that building.

Spearheaded by the Occupational Health, Safety and the Environment Unit on the campus led by Manager Rajesh Kandhai, this exercise was done to facilitate a Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT) Drill to test the response capabilities and response time of internal and external emergency services such as the Division of Facilities Management, the Health Services Unit; the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (canine unit); the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service (fire prevention and search and rescue unit), the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society, the Marketing and Communications Office, staff and students of the St. Augustine Campus.

Overall, these exercises provided a team-based test of the Alma Jordan Library emergency procedures and recovery strategies. They also helped identify procedural gaps for follow up and revision to update the Alma Jordan Emergency Response Plan (ERP).

The first CERT contingent comprised 80 participants from various faculties across the campus and members of the Campus Estate Police. The intent of this exercise was twofold, firstly to test the ERP and the capabilities of the CERT as well as to reinforce to the Campus Community how they should respond should an alarm be activated. The exercise also tested the Campus’ readiness for emergency situations of this nature; the response time of the emergency responders; the availability of equipment to access the building and search for and rescue injured persons.

The CERT contingent will receive their certification in a special graduation ceremony later today.

For further information, please contact the the Occupational Health, Safety and the Environment Unit of The UWI St. Augustine at (868) 662 2002 exts. 82395/83138.

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About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

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