The ModTTX are table-top exercises that focus on the procedures of international civil protection assistance to major disasters. The third Modules Table-Top Exercise of the current cycle took place from 26 to 30 September 2022 in France. The scenario was forest fires with a chemical incident in Southern France. A total of 27 participants (20 Modules, 5 EUCPT and 2 TAST) took part in the exercise.
The third Modules Table-Top Exercise (ModTTX3) took place from 26 to 30 September 2022 in France. It was conducted at Valabre, a Civil Protection Application School near Aix-en-Provence, France, and elaborated a scenario of forest fires with chemical incident in Southern France.
There were 27 participants from 11 different countries comprising of ten Modules Key Personnel teams, an EUCP Team and a TAST who took part in this exercise. Including Exercise Control (EXCON), certifiers, trainers, role players and support staff, a total of 57 persons were involved in the exercise. It was hosted by ENSOSP, the French National Fire Officers Academy in cooperation with the rest of the consortium, formed of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW-DE), the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP-HR), the Federal Public Service Home Affairs – Directorate-General for Civil Protection (DGCP-BE), the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (URSZR-SI), the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA-DK) and the Escola Nacional de Bombeiros (ENB-PT).
The Modules present were Ground Forest Fire Fighting using Vehicles (GFFF-V) from Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, Morocco and Tunisia; a CBRN Detection and Sampling Module from Romania; an Aerial Forest Fire Fighting using Planes from Greece; and a Forest Fires Assessment and Advisory Team (FAST) from Spain.
The practiced scenario was a forest fire brought on by the longest recorded drought in France, whereby the forest fire season started earlier than in previous years, exhausting local response capacities. In the scenario, more than 40.000 hectares of land had burned throughout the summer, damaging roads, public and private buildings, as well as industrial infrastructure. Several main communication and electricity lines were cut, causing power outages for a huge number of households. Through the exercise, the scenario worsened and there was the added complication of a chemical incident. The participants were able to test out their attained knowledge on the UCPM international response procedures and coordination of deployment with an EUCPT in collaboration with the local authorities of France, who participated as role-players. The table-top style of exercise offered a great opportunity to practice these procedures in an easily observable and assessable environment, while requiring relatively few resources.