Guernsey's joint emergency services are practising a Passenger Vessel Mass Abandonment Plan today.
For around 4 hours, from 10 o'clock today, (6 November) Guernsey's joint emergency services will come together to work through a simulated cruise ship fire.
With more than 182,000 cruise ship passengers arriving in Guernsey this year, Assistant Harbour Master Mike Harris, says this kind of practice is essential:
"We have a lot of cruise liners coming in the summer months and it's important that we can respond to any incidents that these vessels may have.
We run smaller exercises fairly frequently, but this is the most ambitious one we've done in a while."
He explained what islanders should expect to see today:
"There'll be search and rescue boats out on the water, such as the lifeboat, The Flying Christine and The Leopardess.
And in the harbour, there'll be all the emergency blue light services, civil protection, and lots of vehicles.
The public won't be able to get near them, because there'll be a restricted area put in place at the slip road on the North Beach car park.
Apologies to anyone who is affected by the partial closure of the port, but it is for a good reason and we'll try to keep it to as short a time as possible."
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