Wave of dam devastation

Exercise Triton at Dovestone Reservoir, involving all the major services including the Army, police, fire and rescue service, United Utilities and others. Pic shows Chinook helicopter dropping off a water pump.

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A CHILLING scenario in which a reservoir burst carved an horrific wave of destruction across communities was acted out at an iconic beauty spot yesterday.

In the biggest-ever live 'search and rescue' play exercise staged in the region, Dovestone Reservoir was breached.

A notional wall of water travelling at 18mph devastated hundreds of thousands of homes, destroying businesses and wrecking schools and offices.

Experts estimated flooding would have completely ravaged low-lying areas of Greenfield and parts of Saddleworth, cutting a swathe through Mossley, Ashton, Denton and Manchester, reaching as far as Sale.

Code-named Exercise Triton 11, the intricate plan has taken more than two years to assemble and involved 33 agencies.

Expert firefighters, teams of police and paramedics worked side-by-side with local councils, utility companies, the military and specialists including Oldham Mountain Rescue Team.

But, although the exercise had begun earlier in the week, the scenario was not revealed until yesterday.

Based on constant, torrential rain of recent days, the drama unfolded when water engineers contacted emergency services over the worrying rise of levels at the Dovestone dam.

Jon Aspinall, the incident commander, is Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services borough manager for Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.

He took charge of the scene from a mobile incident post, flanked by fire engines and specialist equipment, near Dovestone Sailing Club.

Giant pumps were rushed to the scene in a bid to reduce the water levels lapping the top of the dam.

But the situation worsened and a giant RAF Chinook helicopter was called in to fly emergency missions collecting and delivering extra water pumps on a sling to the site.

However the dam's seal had been damaged and a sink hole appeared in its supporting wall.

Then a message crackled over the airwaves: "The dam has burst..."

Meantime, PCSOs from Saddleworth closed roads while volunteers played flood victims at Greenfield's Club and Castleshaw which had be turned into rescue centres.

The exercise switched to Hollingworth Lake, where Greenfield was portrayed as being under water and search and rescue teams carried out rescues and salvaged property.

Later at a Dovestone debriefing, experts from the rescue services and United Utilities compared notes over elements of the mammoth event.

Authorities say these exercises are regularly held in the UK to ensure key emergency responders are properly prepared for all kinds of situations.

The focus is for individual organisations to test their own response services, and how organisations work together.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, it is a requirement for councils and emergency services to plan for major incidents.