E.P.S. TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23717, 15 August 1942, Page 4

E.P.S. TRIAL

REALISM PLANNED IN TEST

This month’s E.P.S. trial will be the most searching yet held by the metropolitan organisation and will more closely approximate to the actual conditions civil defence workers would encounter in a raid, than the others have been. Personnel will suddenly be confronted by an emergency, and will have to take the proper steps to set the appropriate part of the organisation in motion.

The method to be used will be the placing of sacks painted white and bearing descriptions. One sack may represent a casualty qf a particular type, another a fire, a third a large crater in the road with broken water-mains, and a fourth a broken overhead wire.

A shot from a starting pistol will give E.P.S. workers their first intimation that an emergency has arisen, and from then what happens will depend on their own initiative and efficiency. First they must find the sack; then they must deal with the situation it represents.

Large numbers of the sacks will be distributed through the area. Though wardens will be those mainly concerned with the initial stage of any emergency, as they would be in a raid, other personnel may be the first to find a sack, and in any case they will soon have their share of work to do as instructions are given out for the second and subsequent stages. The general public must not interfere with the sacks, it was stated yesterday, because by doing so they would disorganise the trial.