A major training exercise involving Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service will take place at Osborne House in East Cowes tomorrow (Sunday).
Several appliances and vehicles from Hampshire will travel across the Solent via Red Funnel to East Cowes, where they will join appliances and crews from the Isle of Wight for a simulated major fire at the English Heritage property. Fake artifacts will be removed from a first floor room as part of the training.
Hampshire Constabulary are also involved in the exercise, escorting the convoy of vehicles from Eastleigh to the Red Funnel Southampton ferry terminal.
Local residents and members of the public are being made aware that the exercise will appear real, but that it is just that – an exercise. No blue lights will be used on the public highway and vehicles will travel at normal speeds to and from fire stations and rendezvous points.
The exercise and associated activity will take place in and around East Cowes.
Chief Fire Officer Dave Curry said:
“Exercises like this are a vital way of practising our skills and ensuring that we are ready, should there ever be a major incident on the Island”.
Osborne House will remain open to visitors as per normal during the exercise, with minimal restrictions to exterior routes around the house. The visitor experience inside the house will be unaffected.
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