'Exercise Olympian' - firefighter drills take place at Lea Marston lakes

A large-scale training exercise for Warwickshire fire crews has been in play at Lea Marston Lakes this week.

'Exercise Olympian' has been helping Warwickshire Fire and Rescue teams prepare for reservoir breaches and has been running this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (April 23).

The simulation has seen fire crews at Lea Marston react as if lots of wet weather has caused a breach at the reservoir that could damage local buildings, roads and infrastructure.

The firefighters discovered during the simulation that one 'High Volume Pump' was not enough to deal with the problem, and so had to call on extra support on Thursday.

These extra units came from Kingsbury Water Park and allowed the reservoir to be returned to a safe level.

The exercise involved up to 100 people and six pumps in total.

John Wilson, Station Manager for Stratford & Alcester District, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Exercise Olympian is a great opportunity to realistically test our response to an evolving incident.

"High Volume pumps are a nationally provided resource and respond to major incidents up and down the country. Supported by our colleagues from around the midlands and the national capability team, I hope everyone's take-away will be a better understanding of the benefits of our high volume pumping assets.

"This learning will not only be applicable to reservoir breaches but also to many different types of flooding that are encountered and will enable us to work with partners to better safeguard lives and property in such events in the future."