HM Coastguard coordinates multi-agency response to fire exercise
The
multi-agency exercise took place at Hurst Castle, Milford on Sea in Hampshire.
The scenario was based on a fire having affected three floors of the main keep
of the castle, which stands at the end of a 1.5 mile long shingle spit. There
were also ‘casualties’ on all the floors who would need to be rescued.
HM
Coastguard co-ordinated the exercise, which was designed to test how all the
emergency services would work together,
particularly focusing on responding to an incident
in a remote and inaccessible location.
Given
the logistical challenges of accessing the castle via the shingle spit, HM
Coastguard was assisted by the Hurst Castle Ferry in the deployment of
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) to fight the fire, to find the
‘casualties’ and rescue them. HFRS were swiftly followed by South Central
Ambulance Service (SCAS) and SCAS’s Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), along with Lymington and Southbourne Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRTs). Hampshire Police were also on scene to provide assistance and RNLI Lymington
inshore lifeboat also played a valuable part in the rescue of a simulated
casualty from the sea next to the castle.
Jim
Morgan, Senior Coastal Operations Officer for HM Coastguard in Hampshire said:
“This
is an incident we hope we will never see happen, but this was an extremely
valuable exercise in testing how well we emergency services coordinate and work
together. The opportunity to work alongside our
partners on an exercise like this allows us to hone our skills in dealing with
a major incident of this nature and to achieve
the best outcome possible. It provided a great opportunity to build on
our experience and to identify whether any lessons can be learned to
continually improve how we work together.
We
are very grateful for the involvement of all the emergency services that took
part this evening, and for all the hard work and
excellent teamwork demonstrated. A special thank you also goes out to
the people that played the part of the casualties, and last but not least to
the team at Hurst Castle itself”.