31 Teams To Compete In International Major Incident Response Exercise Competition

SANTUBONG (Sarawak, Malaysia), Dec 1 (Bernama) -- A total of 31 teams, including seven foreign teams, will flex their muscles in the battle of the fittest at the International Major Incident Response Exercise Competition (iMirex) beginning Tuesday, at the Sarawak Culture Village. The three-day competition will see participants from Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore competing with each other to showcase their search and rescue, as well as medical response skills. It is held in conjunction with the International Conference on Major Incident and Disaster Management which ended Monday. Malaysian Society for Traumatology and Emergency Medicine (Mastem) president Dr Abu Hassan Asaari Abdullah said participants would compete with each other to showcase their search and rescue, as well as medical response skills. "The best team will win the coveted prize as champion of i-MIREX," said the organising chairman of both the conference and exercise. Dr Abu Hassan said among components contested would be mass casualty incident management, CBRNE challenge, robust and resilience competition, hydro challenge, wilderness challenge, night rescue, water rescue, obstacle challenge and team performance. He said participants only needed to bring their personal sleeping tents and camp to the camp site, similar to the actual situation during rescue operations. On the international conference on major incident which ended Monday, he said the 500 participants deliberated on major incident management which included natural and man-made disasters, psychological support and CBRNE incidents, among others. Among speakers at the conference were Dr Susan Briggs from the United States, who spoke on 'Advanced Disaster Medical Response Course'; Dr Jameel Ali of Canada (Rural Trauma Team Development Course), Prof Kang Hyun Lee of Korea (SEWOL ferry capsize incident), Japan's Dr Makoto Akashi (Fukushima nuclear accident: Handling complex radiological emergency) and Dr Abu Hassan (Psychological Oscillation: Hope vs Despair). Sarawak Culture Village is located in east Malaysian state of Sarawak. --BERNAMA