Cornwall Fire & Rescue exercise on St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall

A huge operation in the planning involving fire crews and appliances from Penzance, St Just, Hayle, Camborne, Helston and St Ives, the plan was road tested last summer working in partnership with the RNLI utilising the Penlee lifeboat from Newlyn in transporting crews across to the island when the tide was in.

The island location of St Michael’s Mount creates unique problems when it comes to dealing with a serious fire and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service work closely with the National Trust, the St Aubyn family and staff at St Michael’s Mount to develop an effective fire plan which identifies ways of overcoming any future challenges. The exercise took place at low tide, enabling the teams to test the practicalities of transporting fire appliances and a large number of fire fighters across to the island.

Lessons learnt from this exercise help to inform and better prepare fire fighters across Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service to deal with incidents in difficult and hard to reach locations.