On Monday the 18th of May we went to Sullom Voe with Cullivoe Primary and Mid Yell primary 5, 6 and 7 but Abby tagged along with us.
When we arrived at Sullom Voe we had to go through security and they took anything that had batteries because it could mess with their systems.
When we had passed through security we went and did a safety check. We got split into 3 groups and my group went to the control room.
In the control room we first went to look at everything the lady called Kirsty did. She took us around her desk and showed us the kind of things she had to do. She told us that they have 6 phones and they have 1 emergency phone and to ring that you have to dial 222. They had a board with red lightbulbs on it showing every place there was a fire or smoke alarm.
We then went downstairs and we went to the fire department. We worked with the fire extinguishers. There are 2 types, Water and C02. The firemen did an experiment with real fire. We then tried on the suits and the gas masks and he but on the air for us sowe were breathing through the mask.
We then went to the ambulance and he showed us all the equipment they had. We went inside the ambulance and pressed all the buttons inside and we learned that they have a camera inside the back so that the driver can see how the patient is getting on. They have a spare ambulance because of they have so many workers now with one ambulance might not be enough so they are keeping the other one on supply.
We then had our lunch (Which was AMAZING!) and then went back to the bus and went on a site tour. We saw loads of pipes, the pipes were carrying oil from different parts of Shetland. We saw a huge place that was storing Crude oil.
When we finished our tour we went to the pollution unit and we saw an experiment when he put a chemical into a tank which had water with a layer of Crude oil on the top, when the chemical mixed with the oil it dispersed . They needed to get special permission from the government to use the chemical because it could harm the environment but the pollution team at Sellaness believe it was better to leave the chemical in the long term.
My highlights were putting on the gas mask because it was so cool and weird at the same time when it was on your face, going in the new ambulance because it was so cool inside and you could make the lighting really cool and the dinner!
Next time I would like to learn a bit more about the fire engines and the workers shifts. I liked the idea of driving the ambulance but not being paramedic trained.
I would like to thank all the staff, workers and cooks that gave us such a great experience!
