IT WAS an exercise in dealing with a horrific situation that would stretch emergency services to the limit.

A string of terrorist attacks, a derailed train and a fire at a high rise tower block were among the disasters facing Hampshire teams.

Emergency services tackled all three and tested their skills to the limit as part of an exercise preparing them for incidents where multiple fatalities and hundreds of lives are at risk.

The operation was part of a high profile training exercise to put the county’s top fire chief through his paces and test his ability in dealing with major emergencies.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer Dave Curry was faced with the challenge as part of an immersive assessment lasting half a day and involving more than 50 people.

The drill involved a train explosion and attacks at East Cowes and Plymouth Portsmouth, where festivals were being staged and thousands looked set to be stranded.

The scenario also featured the evacuation of a high-rise building in Southampton city centre which was hit by a smoke plume.

Organisers made sure only limited information was available and there were constant interruptions to put the chief under pressure.

even more pressure and recreate the stress of an ongoing emergency.

This included overcoming the challenges of a cracked road, to traffic management to social media rumours.

He also had to consider pulling in resources from elsewhere to give full cover to other areas as, in the case of a real attack, firefighters would still be called to a normal number of incidents.

The scenario was planned down to the most minute detail with fake radio bulletins.

on the incident being played as the chief was being taken to the scene and a press scrum afterwards featuring a former member of the national press.

CFO Curry said: “The details of the scenario were unknown to me until my pager went off in the morning and it started to play out.

"It was clear a lot of effort had gone into making the exercise as challenging as possible which is exactly what is needed.”

“This not only served as a rigorous test of my skills and decision-making abilities but also helped us make sure HFRS is prepared for anything – something every firefighter thinks about.”

Every incident commander from crew manager to the chief has to be assessed every two years in addition to other exercises and drills.

The chief passed the assessment which may now be rolled out to other fire services.

Academy Station Manager Craig Gregory said: “The chief fire officer demonstrated his leadership and command skills throughout a challenging incident scenario testing both tactical and strategic thinking.”

“He was joined by strategic managers from partner agencies to resolve a significant scenario affecting Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”

Assessment organiser Karl Manners said: “Thanks go to the internal staff and agencies who made this assessment as challenging and realistic as possible.”