A multi-agency major incident exercise puts emergency services across Hampshire through their paces.

On Thursday 19 June 2025, clinical staff from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance joined forces with emergency responders from Hampshire Police, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Fire and Rescue, South Central Ambulance Service and Enhanced Care Services to take part in a large-scale major incident exercise.

Train hard, fight easy

The multi-agency exercise at the Royal Naval Base, Portsmouth, tested the teams’ response to a major incident. It also helped them practise complex decision making under intense pressure and allowed them to evaluate the speed and effectiveness of multi-agency coordination. Exercises like this help the team identify areas for improvement and reinforce best practices.

The exercise evolved in real-time and featured an explosion, smoke and up to 25 casualties with a variety of blast injuries and ailments ranging from critical to mild.

The blue lights, sirens and helicopter flying overhead were all brought to life by actors and volunteers who played casualties and bystanders. Approximately 60 crew members were involved on the night, taking up a variety of roles over the course of the two-hour simulation.

Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine, Dr Chris Hill, said:

“This was an excellent opportunity to test our ability to provide life saving care to a significant number of patients and put into practice the lessons from recent real incidents in the UK.

“We are always searching for new ways to be even more effective should the worst happen in our region and the exercise certainly tested our crews to the limit.”

Watch Manager Jamie Kelly, Southsea Fire Station, said:

“To make sure we are able to respond to incidents effectively and make life safer, our firefighters maintain their skills by testing themselves through realistic training scenarios.

“We regularly join partners for training exercises as it helps replicate the real-life situations we can find ourselves in, working together to save lives.

“This is a great opportunity for our teams to familiarise themselves with an important site in our area and build upon our excellent relationships with our partner agencies.”

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