Fraud Blocker Decontamination Cleaning for Search and Rescue Service | SafeGroup
0800 668 1268

Decontamination Cleaning for Search and Rescue Service

Chris Macdonald - Sales Director - SafeGroup

By

Chris Macdonald

3 min read

CleanSafe Services has been commissioned to provide reactive decontamination cleaning services for the UK’s Search and Rescue Helicopter Service operated by Bristow Group.

The company’s specialist teams are now available 24 hours a day to respond to any urgent cleaning task the search and rescue service needs help with.

Bristow operates a fleet of advanced search and rescue helicopters at 10 bases across the UK on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Decontamination cleaning
CleanSafe Services will be ready to carry out emergency decontamonation cleaning on search and rescue helicopters as well as buildings and equipment

CleanSafe Services Managing Director Steve Broughton said: “We’re very pleased to be asked by Bristow to provide this emergency cleaning service.

“Our teams will be ready to provide support for cleaning all structures and surfaces at each of the helicopter bases, and the search and rescue helicopters themselves.

“Aviation sites present specific specialist cleaning risks, such as the need to store aircraft fuel, oils, and hydraulic fluids, that need to be managed in an effective and timely way.

“Also, the vital work carried out by the search and rescue teams creates potential contamination risks to the helicopters and the equipment they carry due, in terms of injuries and illnesses sustained by the people they help.

“Where necessary, we can deploy specialist bio-containment cleaning teams to decontaminate on the interiors of aircraft and equipment, safely removing blood or other body fluids, so they are ready for the next emergency call.”

Bio-contamination risk

Iain Ritchie, Bristow’s Search and Rescue Health, Safety, and Environment Advisor, said having access to CleanSafe Service’s specialist support assists the service in controlling operational risks.

He added: “The people we help can be seriously injured or very ill, which presents a contamination risk if not managed properly. We have rigorous internal systems in place to effectively control these events.

“However, where we assess that we need further expert advice and intervention, we have the added assurance of being able to call on CleanSafe Services.”

decontamination cleaning
The interior of search and rescue helicopters can become contaminated with blood and other body fluids during rescues.

CleanSafe Services is the UK’s leading emergency cleaning specialist, providing a national reactive and planned service from four operational centres, in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Edinburgh.

Decontamination cleaning

Services include bio-containment cleaning, decontamination cleaning, hazardous waste cleaning, and crime scene cleaning, as well as a wider range of emergency cleaning services, including flood and fire damage cleaning.

The Search and Rescue Helicopter Service, operated by Bristow, carried out 2,595 civilian ‘taskings’ in the year to the end of March 2017, of which 59 per cent were search and rescue operations.

On average, each of the 10 helicopter bases responded to seven taskings per day. The busiest month was August 2016, with 372 taskings, reflecting the fact that demand for search and rescue support always peaks during the main holiday season.

Chris Macdonald - Sales Director - SafeGroup
About the author

Chris Macdonald

Chris has strategic responsibility for sales development and major accounts management at SafeGroup. He was a professional footballer with Southampton FC until a series of injuries ended his career while still a teenager. Chris began working as a helpdesk controller for a national FM company in 2004. By 2013 he was its managing director. From there he joined SafeGroup in 2018, bringing with him huge expertise plus the energy, enthusiasm and drive that would have surely made him a success in the Premier League. He does, however, still enjoy playing football.

Latest from Safegroup