April 16 2012.

There was an emergency exercise held at Newhaven Port on Thursday 12th April to test the response of the Port and the Emergency Services in dealing with a fire at the Ferry Passenger Terminal.

Whilst the fire crews from Newhaven and Lewes were put through their paces fighting the fire and carrying out casualty searches and rescue in thick smoke conditions, a Command and Control Centre was established at the Port Operations Building to test the management of the exercise and to consider the wider implications of such an emergency.

Representitives from the Port Authority, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Sussex Police, Network Rail and HM Coastguard formed the members of the Command team.

An on-site debrief was held after the exercise and this is to be followed by a more formal debrief next month to evaluate the lessons learned by all participants.