| Dramatic Training Exercise for Fire Service and University |
| South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and staff from the University of Sheffield will test their emergency response procedures by staging a dramatic fire scenario in the University’s 21 storey Arts Tower.
‘Exercise Hot Potato’ will take place on Sunday 6 July on Brook Hill, in the busy city centre area of Sheffield. Smoke generators will be used to simulate the fire on an upper floor. Firefighters will use search and rescue techniques following reports that people are trapped inside the building. The exercise will give firefighters and University staff the opportunity to undertake training in a realistic environment, experience incident command systems and practise high-rise incident procedures. It aims to identify good practice, as well as any training or development needs. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Station Manager Eddie O’Neill, leading the exercise, said: “This is an excellent opportunity not just to test our response procedures but also strengthen our links with the University. This exercise is part of an ongoing plan to continuously improve our responses to incidents, and also prevent them from happening in the first place.” Steven Massey, Fire Safety Adviser at the University of Sheffield added: “The iconic Arts Tower building is the perfect place to undertake this kind of training as it provides a number of challenges to both the staff and firefighters involved. We hope that the people taking part will never have to put what they learn into practice but if such an incident did occur on campus, the experience gained and lessons learned from this exercise will be of enormous value. “We have a very good working relationship with South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and welcome the opportunity to participate in exercises of this nature. This is the third joint training exercise that I have helped to organise and I look forward to working with them again in the future.” Activity at the site will begin at 10:30am and the exercise will last for around two hours. The exercise should not affect any road users as all local public roads in the vicinity will remain open. Although photographers will therefore be free to take photographs, both photographers and reporters are asked not to interfere with the work of staff at the scene. This is because roads would ordinarily be closed during an incident of this kind, and it is important that emergency staff are able to work in a realistic environment. -Ends-
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