Watford’s emergency services ‘rescued trapped casualties from an aircraft crashed into a tree’ in a training exercise.

Firefighters from Watford, Kings Langley, and Hemel Hempstead fire stations took part in the pre-planned exercise on Monday, October 21, alongside Herts Police officers and the East of England Ambulance service.

Saving two trapped casualties from a light aircraft suspended in a tree was simulated “as close to a real-life experience as possible”, near Kings Langley.

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service)

Herts Fire and Rescue area commander Andy Hall said: “Testing and exercising our skills in extreme situations allows is to ensure that we are always fully prepared to protect the public in any situation, no matter how rare.

“By working together, we can ensure every agency can test their own arrangements and learn from the experience.

“Exercises of this kind are critical, and I’m proud of how our emergency services worked together in order to share learnings.

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service)

“It’s important that we can continuously improve the way we work together in order to provide the best emergency service response to our county.”

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Emergency Critical Care Scheme and the Environment Agency also took part in the training, while moderators assessed the teams against Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles.

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service)

It tested participants skills, knowledge, and training, as well as how different services are able to work together when responding to a 'major multi-agency situation'.

Chief Inspector Andrew Palfreyman said: “Hertfordshire Constabulary believe these exercises, provide an excellent training opportunity, working in partnership with other agencies to ensure we are prepared ahead of when we could be tested in the future.”

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service)

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service)

Exercise co-ordinator Graham Grover, from the Hertfordshire Local Resilience Forum, added: “Across the county emergency service agencies and partner organisations regularly take part in training exercises to test our plans for handling a particular kind of incident and ensure that our teams have the skills and experience to respond to these events.

“This exercise was a challenging scenario and provided an opportunity for us to work together in a challenging scenario where a light aircraft had crashed in a rural location and two casualties were trapped in a tree.”

(Image: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service) (Image: Herts Police) (Image: Herts Police) (Image: Herts Police) (Image: Herts Police) (Image: Herts Police) (Image: Herts Police)