If there was an earthquake...

7 September 2010, 06:00

Just 3 days after an earthquake struck New Zealand, fire crews and ambulance staff from Hampshire and the Thames Valley - are about to see how THEY would cope if it happened here.

Emergency services will today - join crews from 7 European countries - to test how prepared they are - for such a challenge.

It's costing 1-MILLION euros (£843,000) as is being funded by the EU because it's likely we'd very likely need the help of European rescue teams, if a large part of the country was paralysed by a major earthquake.

During the 3 days - teams will experience what they'd likely face and the challenges they'd have to overcome - all set in a fictional town, set in a closed-off part of Hampshire (part of a Fire Brigade training area).

It's called Operation Orion - and crews will have to deal with a collapsed motorway bridge, collapsed buildings and even an oil storage plant.

They'll also have to deal with reports of more than 600 casualties.

The crews and management will be tested with how they deal with the unfolding incident and how they deal with European crews coming to help.

These pictures show the type of mocked-up scenarios teams will be faced with: