Firefighters conduct training exercise at Towneley Hall

10:00pm Saturday 29th September 2012 in News

FIREFIGHTERS salvaged national treasures from Towneley Hall yesterday - but there was no need to panic.

Officers from Lancashire Fire and Rescue conducted the mock exercise at the Burnley hall to increase their skills when dealing with emergencies involving museum art collections throughout the county.

The mock rescue, which involved removing historic paintings, centuries old furniture and other valuable artefacts, took place in the morning when the hall is closed to the public.

However, every effort was made to keep it as realistic as possible.

Towneley Hall’s art gallery boasts a spectacular collection of historic items from fine and decorative arts to natural, local and military history.

This event saw fire services ‘rescue’ some of the pieces.

Barry Hornsby from Lancashire Fire and Rescue said: “We have to train realistically and with the cooperation of Towneley Hall that was made possible.

“It is classed as a high risk building because of the national treasures and the cost implications involved.

“Therefore we conducted a realistic scenario.”

Mike Townend, Keeper of History at Towneley Hall, said: “When you work somewhere as historically important as Towneley it is vital that we are as prepared as possible for every eventuality, and events like this help us to ensure that our disaster plan is fully up to date.

“In the case of an emergency obviously staff and visitors would be of utmost importance, but it is important to have these plans in place to be able to save as much as possible from the hall.”

Comments (4)

1:25am Sun 30 Sep 12

Rimbus says...

Turf Moor had been the first choice venue for this exercise, however this had to be changed at short notice after they could not find anything of any significant value to rescue from the 'stadium' (the word stadium is used in the loosest of senses). The only item of value that was found during the initial survey was an old, empty, antique mahogany cabinet with glass doors that was covered in dust and did not appear to have been disturbed for decades. Upon investigation, it soon became apparent that the item of furniture in question was the Burnley F.C. trophy cabinet which was valued by Eric Knowles at just a few hundred quid. The fire service then moved on to Towneley Hall so as to provide themselves with some semblance of reality in their training exercise. The rest is well reported by the LT in their article. Well done LT.
Turf Moor had been the first choice venue for this exercise, however this had to be changed at short notice after they could not find anything of any significant value to rescue from the 'stadium' (the word stadium is used in the loosest of senses). The only item of value that was found during the initial survey was an old, empty, antique mahogany cabinet with glass doors that was covered in dust and did not appear to have been disturbed for decades. Upon investigation, it soon became apparent that the item of furniture in question was the Burnley F.C. trophy cabinet which was valued by Eric Knowles at just a few hundred quid. The fire service then moved on to Towneley Hall so as to provide themselves with some semblance of reality in their training exercise. The rest is well reported by the LT in their article. Well done LT. Rimbus

10:03am Sun 30 Sep 12

DaveBurnley says...

Rimbus wrote:
Turf Moor had been the first choice venue for this exercise, however this had to be changed at short notice after they could not find anything of any significant value to rescue from the 'stadium' (the word stadium is used in the loosest of senses). The only item of value that was found during the initial survey was an old, empty, antique mahogany cabinet with glass doors that was covered in dust and did not appear to have been disturbed for decades. Upon investigation, it soon became apparent that the item of furniture in question was the Burnley F.C. trophy cabinet which was valued by Eric Knowles at just a few hundred quid. The fire service then moved on to Towneley Hall so as to provide themselves with some semblance of reality in their training exercise. The rest is well reported by the LT in their article. Well done LT.
Witty!
[quote][p][bold]Rimbus[/bold] wrote: Turf Moor had been the first choice venue for this exercise, however this had to be changed at short notice after they could not find anything of any significant value to rescue from the 'stadium' (the word stadium is used in the loosest of senses). The only item of value that was found during the initial survey was an old, empty, antique mahogany cabinet with glass doors that was covered in dust and did not appear to have been disturbed for decades. Upon investigation, it soon became apparent that the item of furniture in question was the Burnley F.C. trophy cabinet which was valued by Eric Knowles at just a few hundred quid. The fire service then moved on to Towneley Hall so as to provide themselves with some semblance of reality in their training exercise. The rest is well reported by the LT in their article. Well done LT.[/p][/quote]Witty! DaveBurnley

12:54pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Heretical says...

They could have advertised this and sold tickets....there would have been takers!

Childish yep...but fun!
They could have advertised this and sold tickets....there would have been takers! Childish yep...but fun! Heretical

12:54pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Heretical says...

They could have advertised this and sold tickets....there would have been takers!

Childish yep...but fun!
They could have advertised this and sold tickets....there would have been takers! Childish yep...but fun! Heretical

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