THE Harvey Centre worked with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service to host a training exercise on Thursday 17 January, which involved a car being driven into a wall of the centre’s car park and then set on fire. The car park was full of smoke, which at one stage was billowing out of the centre.

It is imperative that these tests are as real as possible, which all parties made possible. The fire was managed brilliantly by the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service as the team on-site showed skills of speed, agility and calmness – this was an important test to ensure how a fire like this will be managed under extreme pressure.

Bryan Young, Centre Manager at The Harvey Centre says, “The Harvey Centre follows the absolute highest fire safety standards to ensure the wellbeing of its shoppers at all times. This was quite an out of the ordinary test but shows how serious we take fire safety and the steps we are willing to take to protect our shoppers.”