Hever Castle exercise

www.romar.org.uk

Fire service historian and author

Roger Mardon

www.romar.org.uk

On Sunday, 22 February 2009 Kent Fire & Rescue Service held an exercise at Hever Castle to test not only firefighting operations but also the historic building's salvage plans.

The keep and outer walls of the castle were built at the end of the 14th century and the accommodation within was added in the 15th century and extensively altered at the beginning of the 20th century. An annexe in the form of a Tudor village was added beyond the moat between 1903 and 1906. The castle was owned by the Bullen (later Boleyn) family from 1462 to 1538. It was the childhood home and possibly the birthplace of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII.

The predetermined attendance to the castle is three pumps and on the initial call at 10.09 hours the following appliances were mobilised

....................Edenbridge PL (70P1)

....................Sevenoaks P (68P1)

....................Westerham P (69P1)

As the incident progressed, an assistance message was sent - make pumps 10, USAR required - bringing on

....................Tunbridge Wells RPL (74R1)

....................Tonbridge P (72P1)

....................Rusthall P (75P1)

....................Seal P (71P1)

....................Southborough P (76P1)

....................Lingfield WrLR (Surrey Fire & Rescue)

....................Oxted WrLR (Surrey Fire & Rescue)

....................Maidstone CSU (60C1)

....................Maidstone P (60P1) (as support P for CSU)

....................Sittingbourne PM/ICU (45T1)

....................Sittingbourne RPL (45R1) (as support P for ICU)

....................Urban Search and Rescue PCV (61T7)

....................USAR PM with Module 1

....................USAR PM with Module 4

The following pages contain photographs of the scene.

For appliance types and abbreviations see here