THE former Lindsey Lower School was flooded with smoke as more than 25 firefighters took part in a training operation.
Crews from Humberside Fire and Rescue Service were seen practising skills at the site in Clee Road, Cleethorpes, yesterday morning.
They were joined by students from the Prince's Trust who helped set up the training exercise, which included the firefighters finding five casualties in smoke-filled corridors and classrooms.
Community safety advocate Carl Turner, from the community support branch of Humberside Fire and Rescue, said: "We do a lot of exercises like this across a number of different buildings, but to be able to train in a place the size of this is good practice for us.
"It helps us improve the skills of the operational team and we can also give feedback to the building owners of how best to secure a premises to avoid fires being started.
"We have also got two members of the Prince's Trust with us on work experience and they are helping us set up the exercise.
"They will get to see the operation unfold and we will talk them through everything as it happens.
"Humberside Fire and Rescue have a continuous training programme and it is good to get the guys from the Prince's Trust involved."
Although five operational fire engines and their crews were used during the exercise, if the building was actually on fire at least eight would be called.
Watch manager Ryan Murawa added: "I helped set this exercise up with the two guys from the Prince's Trust in mind.
"It is massively important to train and it has to be as realistic as possible and that is why we work with the community support team and they help us find different locations like this one.
"A building like this can be used for a lot of different activities because of the size of it.
"Today's training involves five appliances looking for five missing workmen that were working on the building.
"However, if this was a proper operation, we would be looking at having at least eight appliances but as we are training we need to limit resources so other areas are not left short.
"I want to thank the community support team for helping set this as well as Scotts for letting us have the keys to the site."
As reported, the building is set to be turned into a nursing home specialising in dementia care after Yorkare won a bid to buy the building from North East Lincolnshire Council.
