Firefighters recently spent an afternoon at the Tower of London as part of a multiagency training exercise, reports the London Fire Brigade.
image: London Fire Brigade website
… importance of London’s historic venues having up to date salvage plans in place…
London Fire Brigade writes:
Crews from across the North East area of London Fire Brigade were joined by Historic Royal Palaces staff and colleagues from the Metropolitan Police Service and London Ambulance Service.
The exercise was to practice the response of all partners to an incident at the iconic castle and World Heritage Site.
As well as testing the emergency response to a fire in the famous White Tower, it was also an opportunity for firefighters and the Tower’s salvage team to train for how they would safely remove or preserve the site’s priceless artefacts in the event of an emergency.
The Brigade’s heritage team recently highlighted the importance of London’s historic venues having up to date salvage plans in place.
These identify not only which actions should be implemented by site staff, but also clearly identify priority items which need to removed from the building or protected in place.
The plans allow crews to put recovery strategies in place in advance of an incident and help firefighters establish which equipment is needed to safely recover or protect items as quickly as possible to minimise damage.
Tower Hamlets Borough Commander, Richard Tapp, said: “The Tower of London exercise was a fantastic opportunity for our firefighters to be able to test their response at one of our city’s most iconic landmarks.
“It was a very useful session and I’d like to thank all our partners for taking part in the training with us.”
A Historic Royal Palaces spokesperson said: “We are extremely grateful to London Fire Brigade and other partners for their support and participation in the training exercise undertaken at the Tower of London yesterday.
“As custodians of the Tower – one of the country’s most treasured landmarks – we are keenly aware of the importance of protecting the buildings and collections in our care.
“This exercise gave us the opportunity to practice our emergency procedures and provided invaluable experience for our staff.”
Crews were also supported at the exercise by the Salvation Army’s Incident Response van whose volunteers provided refreshments.
