Fire-fighters in dramatic HGV training

A road crash involving 10 cars and three HGVs put around 60 fire-fighters from across Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire to the test  in a huge training exercise.

Held in a recovery depot in Horwich, ‘Exercise Trucker’ saw crews from Rochdale, Wigan, Bolton, Bury and Chorley deal with a pile-up which put the Heavy Rescue Partnership to the test.

The partnership which has been in place for a year and has never been tested before provides a heavy rescue vehicle able to lift HGVs.

Seventeen volunteers acted as casualties in the exercise which helped crews prepare for a genuine mass pile-up involving heavy goods vehicles.  With one of the cars trapped underneath a tanker on its side, 12 fire engines and two special appliances were joined by the heavy rescue vehicle.

The exercise, put together by Station Manager Geoff Thornley, also involved the Highways Agency, NHS HART team and the police.

He said: “It was a really successful day.  It helped our crews prepare for a big incident as well as test the Heavy Rescue Partnership.  It was nice to work together with our partners and everything went really smoothly.

“A crowd of onlookers were kept safely back and it was good for family members of our volunteers to see the training our crews undertake.

“The Partnership worked really well, the wrecking truck did its job. It was great too to work with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service colleagues, with everyone able to learn on the day.”