THE emergency services attended a huge fire at the Idlerocks Hotel last night – but it was just an exercise.

The fake incident was set up for the emergency services, civil protection volunteers and special constables to practise what they would do in case such an event arose for real.

Sergeant Tony Jones said the exercise had been very useful.

‘It certainly helps and allows the different services to communicate with each other.

‘I think we’ve all got a lot from it. The volunteers are not used to working with the police and vice versa, so it’s good to see how it works and what we need from each other – so this exercise is ideal,’ he said.

Sergeant Jones said that at the end of the exercise there would be a debrief to evaluate how it had gone.

Pictures in this gallery were taken by Tom Tardif. Copies may be obtained from our photo orders section.

Retained Fire-Fighter Pete Falla douses the flames.