Hampshire and IOW Fire & Rescue Services [HIOWFRS] presented Steve Diaper, Operations Manager at Silverlake Automotive Recycling [Silverlake], with a Certificate of Appreciation on Tuesday evening, 10 October 2023, for continued support to the organisation.  The presentation took place following the earlier completion of the second HIOWFRS training exercise this year at Silverlake’s site near Southampton.  

Firefighters took part in a multi-vehicle road-traffic-collision training exercise which saw six on-call teams challenged with rescuing three casualties trapped inside the wreckage. Of the four vehicles provided by Silverlake, one was chosen to be electric, testing the team’s knowledge of the latest procedures with dealing with these modern cars. The firefighters were also assessed on their medical skills as they treated the extricated casualties.  

Watch Manager Rob Barrow said:

“Without Silverlake’s support we wouldn’t be able to test the skills of our firefighters in realistic, challenging scenarios, and on the actual vehicles that our teams find out on the roads at real incidents. Our partnership with Silverlake means we have the opportunity to train outside of our weekly drill nights at a fantastic venue using a range of salvage vehicles in road traffic collision simulations. 

“This was a fantastic opportunity to not just test our on-call team’s road traffic collision techniques, but also their medical care skills.

“How firefighters deal with electric vehicle incidents is a fast-moving subject. As the technology advances, so must our knowledge and procedures.”

Steve Diaper, Operations Manager at Silverlake said: 

“To be able to help Hampshire and IOW Fire & Rescue Services [HIOWFRS] by providing the vehicles and local facilities for simulated training exercises at our site is an honour.  

“It is great to have facilitated this second, larger and even more involved, training exercise at our site this year. We will continue to offer this support and explore how we might assist further.  

“Silverlake has been based in this area for 77 years and we are committed to giving back to the community that has supported our business over the years.  As a regional community, we all rely on and owe a debt of gratitude to HIOWFRS who work hard to keep us safe; rising to challenges in sometimes dangerous circumstances.”