Northamptonshire Police Fire & Crime Commissioner says major incident exercise 'hugely important'
The service came together with other public organisations to deal with a mock scenario involving a mid-air collision of two aircrafts.
Northamptonshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner says it's hugely important the force was part of this weeks major incident exercise.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the service and come together with other public organisations to deal with a mock scenario involving a mid-air collision of two aircrafts.
The RAF and other agencies involving more than 300 people simulated emergency in the St James area of Northampton, starting at 9:30am on Tuesday.
The purpose of the exercise was to practice, in as near a real environment as possible, the readiness of Northamptonshire’s Local Resilience Forum (LRF) to deal with a complex major incident as it unfolds.
That's something Danielle Stone the counties Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner says it's been hugely important:
"We all wish for the best and hope nothing bad ever happens in our communities, but we always need to be prepared for any eventuality and one of the hardest things in life is working with a huge collaboration across all the services.
"So it's really, really important that they get time to have a rehearsal, to find out how they all work together and what the issues are, what needs sorting out, what needs further work to be done."
She says the practice in an urban location brought its own challenges but says she's pleased Northampton was chosen for the exercise:
" I'm really, really grateful that we were chosen for this exercise and it worked really well. I was out on the field and I could see all the services working really, really well together."
Other organisations such as the Environment Agency, UK Health Security Agency and the military also supported the exercise.
The scenario imagined that a Hawk jet and a Wildcat helicopter collided 250ft above Northampton and debris fell across the area.
Those taking part in the exercise were required to quickly liaise with all relevant agencies, risk assess the situation and decide on a course of action.
Deputy Chief Constable and LRF Chair, Ashley Tuckley, said: “Having a real-time exercise, with direct consequences from our action or inaction, was incredibly powerful.
“Colleagues from across our organisations demonstrated the benefit of our years of preparation and work together as we dealt with the unfolding situation.
“Of course, we’ll be reflecting very carefully on the decisions we took and whether different actions might have improved outcomes.
“I’m really grateful to everyone who worked so hard in response to today’s exercise, and to everyone in who might have been disrupted for their patience.”
Incident in Oxfordshire
The Northampton exercise came just days before last nights major incident in Oxfordshire, which saw two firefighters and a member of the public die in a fire at Bicester Motion in the county.
In a statement the Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service said:
"All of us at Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service are devastated to hear of the death of two firefighters from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
"Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the two firefighters, and also to the loved ones of the member of the public who also passed away in this tragic incident in Bicester last night.
"We think also of the two further firefighters who were seriously injured and hope they can make a full recovery.
"News like this has such an effect on us all in the Fire and Rescue family, and underlines once again the risks firefighters face every day.
"We stand ready to give whatever help is needed in the coming days and weeks to our colleagues in neighbouring Oxfordshire, and our hearts go out to them."