Organiser of major Chichester Cathedral exercise 'delighted' with crowd turnout

Being described as the ‘biggest in several years’, this exercise saw a multi-agency response to smoke billowing from Chichester Cathedral. Many memebers of the public watched on as the teams worked together to resolveve the scenario situaiton.

The Station Manager at Chichester Fire Station and Event Director, Anton Mezzone, said: "Last night we held a huge training exercise at Chichester Cathedral to test our emergency response plans.

"We looked at a lot of the learning points from our French colleagues after the Notre-Dame fire in 2019, and we have been working hard for the last five years to improve how we would respond to a similar fire in West Sussex.

"This exercise was an opportunity for us to put our new and improved emergency response plans to the test. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes during a major fire – it’s not just about firefighters on the ground.

"I am absolutely delighted to have seen so many local residents come along to watch the exercise unfold. There was a huge sense of community spirit, and even young children who came along dressed as firefighters which was amazing to see!

"A huge shout out goes to all of our partner agencies who came along and assisted with the exercise, The Showmen for lending us their PA system for the live commentary, SRL Traffic Systems who provided variable messaging signs across the city to make people aware of the road closures and Goodwood for lending us barriers to ensure that the public were kept safe throughout.

"A huge amount of planning went into the coordination of this event, and I am incredibly proud to say that it was a huge success and everything ran smoothly."