Some 50 operational staff from fire and rescue services across the region took part in Exercise Straw Fox on April 27; a training session held at the site of the Secret Garden Party in Abbots Ripton.

The scenario was a fire in a large manor house, and specialist vehicles from Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Norfolk got to practise using their national assets like hose layers and high volume pumps.

In fact, six kilometres of hose was laid around the site and machinery set up to pump water from the one-site lakes.

Watch Commander Ian Smith, exercise organiser and part of Cambridgeshire’s resilience team, said: “Exercise Straw Fox was a resilience training opportunity in the East to test our regional working and best practise using national assets, like the hose layer and high volume pump that we have here in Cambridgeshire.

“These exercises take a great deal of planning and are very important as not only do they give us the chance to hone our skills in unfamiliar territory but also days like this enable us to foster our relationships with those in neighbouring fire services.

“We would like to thank the land owner for allowing us to use this huge space, and also our partner agencies for facilitating the event.”