More than 30 volunteers helped the Lancashire Resilience Forum in an exercise testing its plans to provide a rest centre for people in an emergency situation.

A rest centre is set up by the local authority as a safe location providing temporary accommodation and welfare support for people evacuated or unable to return to their homes because of an emergency.

The exercise was run by members of the Lancashire Resilience Forum including Lancashire County Council, Pendle Borough Council and voluntary organisations including British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, REACT and Rapid Relief.

Members of the public acted as people affected by an explosion in a local street and presented to the rest centre with a number of issues which were designed to test the current arrangements in place.

Jenny Jones, from the Resilience Forum’s Humanitarian Assistance and Voluntary Organisation group, was the Exercise Director.

She said: “The exercise was run to test our rest centre handbook and gave us the opportunity to see how we would care for people who had been evacuated from their homes as a result of a major incident.

“Each role player carried out a different scenario so they would present with different needs that required various levels of support and they were taken through a process with the rest centre staff to make sure they were cared for as well as they possibly could be until they were able return home.

“The exercise provided lots of learning for us which is exactly what we were looking for. The feedback we got from the volunteers and the partners who took part will certainly help us refine and improve our plans for the future which was fantastic.’’

She added: "I would like to thank all those who supported the exercise, both staff and volunteer role players as without them we wouldn’t be able to run these types of exercises and gain the learning that we need to make sure at the time of an emergency we are well prepared to support anyone affected.''