It has been a busy and challenging few days for Lancashire Resilience Forum partners.

On Friday, the Civil Contingencies Team at Blackburn with Darwen Council delivered a live-play Rest Centre exercise following a simulated gas explosion and evacuation of a block of flats, bringing together around 50 participants from their internal teams, blue light agencies, the voluntary sector and a local school.

Exercise Manager, Harrison Maxwell, said: “The objective was to operate a safe and effective Rest Centre using the resources that would likely be available at the time.

“We ensured it was as realistic as possible because the reality of emergencies is that they rarely happen at convenient times. They often happen at 2am on a Saturday with limited staff, incomplete information, competing priorities and rapidly changing circumstances so we exercised that reality.

“Throughout the day teams had to manage everything from medical incidents and missing medication to safeguarding concerns and violent occurrences including a group of bored teenagers getting into scuffles.

“That unpredictability was important because the pressure it brought cannot be replicated in a tabletop exercise and that really tested plans, procedures and people which was fantastic for learning and developing our plans for any future possible incidents.’’

Three days later the Blackburn with Darwen Council team followed this up by hosing a Humanitarian Assistance Centre for those who were still affected by the original gas explosion and evacuation to attend to discuss any continued issues they may have with supporting organisations such as the council’s health, housing and social servicing departments, British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, REACT and Rapid Relief.

The exercise was again managed by Harrison Maxwell who said: “It is important that we provide continued humanitarian assistance support to those in our communities affected by a major incident and this exercise tested the services available.

“Once again there was fantastic support from those who took part and lots of learning for us to take away and use for any future incidents that may take place.’’

Both exercises were funded by the LRF.