Fire chief's experience is truly put to the test

More than 50 people were involved in the immersive assessment of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s chief fire officer Dave Curry which lasted half a day and tested his experience.

As well as the train explosion, the exercise also included attacks at East Cowes and Plymouth where festivals were being staged and thousands looked set to be stranded.

The scenario also featured the evacuation of a high-rise building in the centre of Southampton that had a large smoke plume following an incident.

Mr Curry said: ‘The details of the scenario were completely unknown to me until my pager went off in the morning and it started to play out.

‘It was clear a lot of effort had gone into making the exercise as challenging as possible which is exactly what is needed.’