More than 40 volunteers helped members of the Lancashire Resilience Forum test their plans to support members of the community who may be affected by a major incident in their area.

Exercise Nova saw staff from Lancashire Constabulary and Lancashire County Council work with voluntary organisations such as British Red Cross, St John Ambulance and Rapid Relief to understand their roles in supporting a Survivor Reception Centre (SuRC).

A SuRC is a centre where people involved in the incident, who do not require acute hospital treatment, go for safety, short-term shelter and to be documented by the police for the purposes of identification, investigation, and evidence gathering. The centre is established and managed by the police and supported by local authority, partner agencies and voluntary organisations as required.

The exercise was based on the response to a fictitious major incident scenario of an explosion that had occurred in a local café bar, located near to the entrance to a Shopping Centre and adjacent to market square where a music event was taking place.

Jenny Jones, a Senior Emergency Planning Officer from Lancashire County Council who helped organise the day, said the exercise was carried out to test the LRF’s newly written Emergency Centre Handbooks.

She said: “Major incidents are thankfully extremely rare but exercises like this provide all organisations with the opportunity to practise their roles to ensure that if something was to happen we would be better prepared.

“Learning from the exercise will be reflected in our plans to ensure that we are as prepared as we can be for any major incident that we may need to respond to.’’

She added: ‘Lancashire Constabulary’s Emergency Planning Team directed the exercise and I would like to thank them and the officers of all ranks who showed great professionalism in the way they responded to the challenging scenarios.

“The volunteers all had roles to play to make things as realistic as possible for the police, local authority staff and supporting colleagues with a number of varying demands placed on them throughout the day.

“Major incidents are thankfully extremely rare but exercises like this provide all organisations with the opportunity to practise their roles to ensure that if something was to happen we would be better prepared.

“Events like today make a difference and really do help us prepare for tomorrow and we are extremely grateful to all the volunteers who supported the exercise and all the staff from the organisations who took part.’’

Organisers are always looking for volunteers to take part in similar exercises in the future across Lancashire.

If you would like to know more contact emergency.planning@lancashire.gov.uk