Fire crews in mock plane crash

Firefighters tackled a mock collision involving three planes in the biggest exercise Notts Fire and Rescue Service has been involved with in the past decade

Crews took part in the multi-agency live exercise at RAF Syerston, near Newark, to test the Crash and Disaster plan.

Nick Hopkins, who lives in Worksop and is based at Edwinstowe Fire Station, was the Hazardous Material and Evironmental Protection officer in the Exercise Double Impact scheme.

He said: “It was one of the biggest exercises we have done in several years.”

“We test our own internal procedures and policies on a regular basis,” he said.

“We work closely with other agencies and it’s important we exercise those procedures at large incidents to ensure that we can respond promptly and safely in real life situations.”

Exercise Double Impact involvedmore than 100 firefighters and control room staff, 20 fire appliances from around the county, the RAF, East Midlands Ambulance service, Notts Police and the Environment Agency.

Participants dealt with the ‘crashed’ aircrafts, put out a major ‘fire’ and treated dozens of trapped ‘casualties’ as well as cleaning up ‘fuel’ and making the area safe.

The RAF used a spotter plane to locate dispersed ‘casualties’.