Urban search and rescue teams have combed for survivors through rubble in a Perth suburb, attended a service station explosion and fire crews have donned protective gear to respond to a chemical incident.

It is all part of a simulated response to a magnitude-5.6 earthquake by Western Australia's Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

Superintendent Jon Broomhall from the DFES Academy in Forrestfield, where the annual mock emergency was conducted, said to make the exercise as realistic as possible, units and specialist teams from across the city had no idea they would be taking part ahead of time.

"They're getting calls at their stations and being asked to come straight here," he said.

Firefighters practice how to respond to a hazardous material incident. ( ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch )

In the scenario, the earthquake struck about seven kilometres under the suburb of Guildford at 2:00am on Saturday.

Crews were mobilised and informed 10 people were believed to be dead with 1,825 injured, including at least five seriously.

More than 300,000 buildings had been damaged and 31,450 people would require temporary housing.

The magnitude-5.6 tremor would be bigger than the magnitude-5 earthquake that struck Boulder in 2010, but not as powerful as the quake that destroyed Meckering in 1968, which measured 6.9 on the Richter scale.

"This situation is plausible," Superintendent Broomhall said.

"WA gets about 30-40 earthquakes a year and the size of this one is less than the Meckering earthquake and so is a plausible scenario."

During Exercise Jaguar, emergency services staged a service station fire to practice their response. ( ABC News: Robert Koenig-Luck )

The mock earthquake would be a level-three incident in WA and would probably require interstate and international assistance.

There was a staged petrol station fire, a building collapse with people trapped underneath, and a helicopter rescue from the top of a building.

There was also a simulated chemical incident, which DFES principal scientific officer Jeff Davis said involved household ingredients, garden chemicals and industrial chemicals.

"A small number of them have spilled and reacted, and that's set up intentionally," Dr Davis said.

"And what we've got is crews entering and then they're working with the chemistry centre, who we work with for HAZMAT incidents, to identify what the unknown things are, what's happened and how to render it safe."

Today's exercise was part of DFES's yearly emergency management obligations.

"You can't predict an earthquake, so we do what we can with the best knowledge we have," Mr Broomhall said.