ABSTRACT
The town of Grangemouth, on the River Forth, hosts a number of companies in the oil, petrochemical, chemical and associated businesses. Since 1968 these companies, together with the Emergency Services and statutory bodies, have formed a voluntary Major Incident Control Committee (MICC) with the original, and still valid, purpose of ‘examining the material in each works and its hazard potential, examining the organisation in each works for dealing with it, exploring the integration of the various systems and setting out methods for controlling the emergency should a Major Incident occur’. The following list of the current members may give an indication of the Committee’s scope:
Borg Warner limited BP Chemicals Limited BP Oil Limited BP Oil Grangemouth Refinery Limited Central Regional Fire Brigade Calor Gas Limited Central Scotland Police Central Regional Council Enichem Elastomers Limited Falkirk District Council Forth Ports Authority
Health & Safety Executive Macgas Limited Imperial Chemical Industries Limited Rohm & Haas (UK) Limited Ross Chemicals and Storage Company Limited Scottish Ambulance Service
2 DEFINITION OF A MAJOR INCIDENT
The definition of a Major Incident has developed over the years as earlier definitions were tested by incidents which appeared to approach the borderline; the current wording is
‘A Major Incident is defined as an industrial incident which
(a) is likely to affect, or is affecting, the safety of people outwith the undertaking, and/or
(b) requires external aid in fire-fighting, police and ambulance services etc. beyond the normal call-out attendance, after consultation by these Emergency Services and site managements.’
