Emergency services team up for Gunwharf Quays exercise

Fire crews from Southsea and Cosham were joined by South Central Ambulance Service and Hampshire Constabulary for an exercise in Gunwharf Quays in the early hours of this morning.

The exercise involved dealing with a chemical incident and rescuing affected staff members.

Crew manager Mark Pannell from Southsea Fire Station said: ‘The exercise was that there had been a dangerous chemical released inside the building.

‘We had to make the chemical safe and get the staff out of the building to get the site secured.’

The exercise comes after the nerve agent attack in Salisbury on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Crew manager Pannell says that emergency services in the area would now be better prepared for a similar incident.

He added: ‘The exercise itself went really well.

‘What was great about this was we got to work with all our emergency service partners – so it was good to see us all working together.’