A major exercise to test how the emergency services would repond to a fire at an oil depot in Douglas has been carried out today (Wednesday).

Fire and rescue crews and terminal staff went to work on several serious incident scenarios at the Manx Petroleums Depot on Battery Pier.

The exercise involved pumping around 9,000 litres of water per minute - creating three-quarters of a million litres of foam.

In a real emergency, foam would be directed into the fuel tanks - or over a spillage of fuel to form a 'blanket' - which would suppress oil vapours and put-out any fire.

Around ?500,000 has been invested in safety measures at the oil distributor's depot - and individual sections have been tested on their own.

But today's joint exercise with a range of outside agencies is said to have been 'invaluable' - and will be repeated on a regular basis.