The incident took place at Westquay Shopping Centre on September 24, and involved a large-scale training exercise designed to test emergency services’ response to a serious incident.
The drill, which began after the centre had closed for the evening, involved crews from St Mary’s Fire Station and involved police and ambulance teams.
All members of the public had left the premises before the exercise began.
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Firefighters recently took part in a major late-night emergency exercise at Westquay Shopping Centre. (Image: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service)
St Mary’s Fire Station manager Pete McClemont said: “We have built a close relationship with Westquay in recent years, which has seen them kindly grant us access to their site to conduct a series of exercises testing our skills in a range of different scenarios.
“Working with our partners, we designed this exercise to challenge our operational teams’ response to a large-scale multi-agency incident at the city’s main shopping venue.
“Members of the public in the vicinity of Westquay at the time will have witnessed a large number of emergency vehicles arrive before the practice drill got underway, and I’d like to thank them for their patience and understanding.
“We are really pleased with how the exercise unfolded and the actions responders took to bring the scenario towards a safe resolution.
“As with all training exercises, we will conduct a debrief with all those involved to recognise successes and identify learning points so that we can ensure we are prepared if faced with a similar situation.”
Police and ambulance crews were also involved.
The exercise made use of service routes and private corridors within the shopping centre, allowing emergency teams to practise navigating the complex layout.
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The public had left the premises before the exercise began. (Image: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service)
Emergency calls were made into the control room, which deployed resources as it would during a real incident.
Volunteers acted as casualties at the scene.
Toqeer Kataria, councillor responsible for communities, safety and leisure at Southampton City Council, said: “As a council, we’re committing to creating a Safer Southampton, so I’d like to thank all of our colleagues and partners who were involved in this training exercise.
“Exercises such as this are vital as they help our emergency services to plan for the worst and develop their contingency plans accordingly.”