The London Borough of Hounslow Contingency Planning Unit has shared details of a London Fire Brigade exercise scheduled for Thursday 21 October 2021 at the University of West London site close to where the A4 and M4 meet Boston Manor Road in Brentford.
Under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), Category 1 organisations such as the council and fire service have a statutory duty to “test the effectiveness of their emergency plans by carrying out exercises”.
This exercise planned for from 1.00 pm, tomorrow 21 October 2021, will last approximately three hours and involve 12 or more LFB appliances as well as smoke machines to practise high rise fire and evacuation procedures. A briefing may be found here.
The event will therefore be very visible to the public, potentially from some distance away, including people of Osterley and Spring Grove Ward. Residents should be reassured but, obviously, if in any doubt the advice is to still call 999 who will appropriately field calls.
The organisers have worked with the council’s traffic team and Transport for London to put in place arrangements to minimise any traffic disruption with the large number of Fire Brigade appliances taking part.
The LBH Contingency Planning team will be at the exercise with LFB on the day assisting with coordination of some volunteer students from West Thames College who have kindly agreed to be ‘evacuated’ from the building and testing some of the council response arrangements on site.
TL 20.10.2021
Tony Louki's Report Back 