RESIDENTS in Bacup were evacuated yesterday after a wagon carrying lethal substances crashed in the town as part of a training exercise.
The drill was set up by Lancashire County Council's emergency planning department.
It was designed to test how different agencies would cope in a crisis.
An imaginary truck had been travelling along Burnley Road towards Bacup when it crashed into a wall adjacent to a petrol station.
Firefighters were concerned that debris from the building had fallen on to Oxyacetylene cylinders, causing them to leak.
The county's emergency staff, familiar with real-life incidents ranging from collapsing flats to floods, teamed up with the Salvation Army, the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, St John Ambulance Brigade, the British Red Cross, and the RSPCA, to deal with the situation.
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