Last week, Community Housing, Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service (HWFRS) and neighbouring emergency services held an important training exercise at one of our high-rise buildings, Coniston House in Kidderminster. HWFRS simulated a large fire within a high-rise building and carried out a series of fire and rescue training scenarios.

The exercise involved the use of synthetic smoke as well as activating the building’s fire alarm which was handled by our Technology Enabled Care Services team (TECS) who handle our alarm monitoring centre. This allowed the emergency services to fully test their procedures dealing with an incident in a high-rise building. Community drama school students from St Augustine’s Catholic High School volunteered as residents of the block, which provided the firefighters with a realistic opportunity to rescue people, as well as providing emergency first aid in a pressurised situation.

Abdul Malik, Head of Health & Safety for Community Housing said: “The exercise was hugely successful and offers customers with reassurance that there are well rehearsed plans to respond to an unfortunate incident.”

Watch Commander Andrew Dalton, from HWFRS’s North District, the exercise lead, said: “This was an invaluable opportunity to test out and improve our fire and rescue procedures.

“We received total support from other blue light colleagues, the local Council and the local community and I would like to thank the neighbourhood for their patience while we undertook this vital training.”