Over 200 people will take part in Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania disaster prevention drills

June 16, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Over 200 employees of emergency rescue and emergency recovery services will take part in regional operational and tactical exercises. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by Alexander Yarmosh, Deputy Head of the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The large-scale exercises will be held on June 23-24 in Polotsk and Miory districts. In addition to employees of the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Republican Center for Management and Response to Emergencies of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus and the Republican Special Purpose Detachment, rescuers from Lithuania and Latvia, as well as specialists from emergency recovery services of enterprises involved in the maintenance of product pipelines and oil pipelines will take part. 80 units of equipment, including 4 helicopters and 2 aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus units, will be involved in the training operation. The exercise scenario provides for work to eliminate the consequences of two emergencies caused by the rupture of oil product pipelines on the Western Dvina River and its tributaries. The training situation will be complicated by a sudden fire at the site of diesel fuel spill and a forest fire. Another complicating factor will be the explosions of shells from the Great Patriotic War at the fire site and injuries to people caught at the scene of the emergency. Thus, in addition to water purification activities, rescuers will have to extinguish fires, rescue people and deliver them to the hospital by air. A parachute-landing group of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the aviation of the Ministry of Emergency Situations will take part in extinguishing the forest fire. According to the scenario, rescuers from Latvia and Lithuania will take part in eliminating the consequences of oil product spills in the border area near the village of Uzmeny, Miory district. Their arrival in Belarus will be facilitated by customs and border services, which will thus practice their actions in case of a cross-border emergency during the exercises. According to Alexander Yarmosh, the main goal of the exercises is to practice in practice a set of measures that are taken in emergency situations, to check the coordination of interaction in eliminating accidents and their consequences, and to gain practical experience of joint actions of services of neighboring states. The exercises are part of the international project "Strengthening Regional Capacity for Prevention and Response to Chemical Accidents with Transboundary Consequences in the Belarus-Latvia-Lithuania Region," scheduled for 2008-2009. Its financing is provided by the European Union. International and regional observers will monitor the course of the exercises. -0-