Fire crews from Wiltshire and Hampshire at the mock disaster. 14/10/04SEVEN people were killed and a further eight seriously injured when part of the roof of Salisbury Cathedral collapsed on Monday night - or so the emergency services were led to believe.

They were told that an accident in the tower, where two men had been working, had resulted in the partial collapse of some of the vaulting above the knave, just after Evensong had finished at 6.15pm on Monday.

The Close was immediately sealed off and nine appliances from Wiltshire and Hampshire fire brigades - some 50 firefighters - arrived on the scene.

Rescue teams quickly found the workmen and walked them down from the roof area, but it took them more than half-an-hour to locate all the injured and move them to safety.

Despite the flashing blue sirens, fallen debris and smoke, it was all make-believe - an exercise designed to test the cathedral's new disaster recovery plans and the response of the emergency services.

But only a few people were privy to that fact, and it was not until firefighters arrived on the scene and saw the waiting press, smoke machines and intact roof that they realised it was a mock scenario.

Nevertheless, two command posts were quickly established - one inside and one outside the cathedral - and rescue teams began a sweep of the building, just as they would in a real emergency.

Volunteers who had agreed to play the injured were dotted throughout the cathedral and firefighters using only torchlight had to locate and remove them on stretchers to a waiting ambulance, where their fake wounds were treated.

At the same time, they had to ignore the eyes of the prying pseudo-journalists, who were allowed into the cathedral to watch the exercise in progress and question those involved.

An hour-and-a-half later, the mock disaster was called to an end and the planning team, which had spent about four months organising the event, gathered to assess the outcome.

The verdict? There are some important lessons to be learned. John Aldridge, fire safety divisional officer for Wiltshire Fire Brigade, said the exercise had not gone as well as it could have done.

In particular, he said it had taken the crews longer to locate the casualties than he would have liked, but it had been a large building to search and it had been dark.

He said: "They were understandably working their way from the outside in, so that is why they didn't go straight to the casualties.

"In future, we need to get the initial crews to assess the situation more quickly, so that incoming vehicles and crews can carry out their tasks more efficiently."

Alun Williams, head of visitor services at the cathedral, said the exercise had proved worthwhile from the cathedral's point of view, as it had provided them with useful information.

He added: "A lot of things worked very well.

"We need to look at some things more carefully, but to have the very high level of involvement from the fire brigade, in particular, has been hugely useful.

"Hopefully, though, we are never going to have to test our disaster recovery plans for real."