Alerter

Scottish Modules...

Last night we had the joys of two RTC lectures - 4 and 5.

I've had a moan in an earlier post about the Scottish Modules and now it's time for some more!

These Modules are meant to be the mainstay of our training and certainly seem to take up a great deal of our limited drill time.

The first lecture was all about vehicle stabilisation and casualty extrication. Now, to say these modules were done on the cheap would be an understatement. There were just a couple of photos of RTC drills and the rest of the 'imagery' was made up of drawings seemingly done by the local nursery school!
From these pictures we are meant to be able to interpret the lecture notes (read out to us) and 'see' these depicted on the screen.

Is it beyond the collective means of all the individual Fire Service's to club together and get some decent films made of the various RTC themes we need to know? The films can be made of small segments showing, in detail, each of the areas that the lecture notes cover. Then put the whole lot together and show a mock RTC with all the individual themes rolled into the one drill.

Some of these Scottish Modules cover areas that we, as ordinary firefighters, will never encounter. Yet something that is our bread and butter is dealt with by a Powerpoint presentation that, quite honestly, doesn't cut the mustard.

We need to be able to put ladders up, pump water, extinguish fires, be competent BA wearers and be well versed in RTC procedures and techniques. These are the mainstays of the job. Knowledge of all these others areas is a bonus. Let's get the basics right first...

How not to catch a bus...

Date: 23rd April  2008
Time: 1045
Type: RTC
Address: A12, Lowestoft (junction with Blundeston Road)
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 05, 01 and 02

Seems ages since our last shout... Always comes as a shock when your alerter goes off after such a long gap.

Anyway, got to the station after what seemed the slowest drive ever. People weren't just sticking to the speed limit, they were halving it instead!

Blue Watch have taken the PRT (Normanshurst 05) and we take Ladder 1 (Normanshurst 01) with a crew of four. Mel Buck in charge, Pete Brown driving and myself and Al Soards riding BA.

There wasn't anything to do when we arrived. A double decker bus had been rear ended by a private car. The back of the bus was crumpled and it was leaking something on to the road, so Al just added more of the absorbent mixture we carry to the sack full put down by Blue Watch.

The bus wasn't in service at the time as it was on a test run with two mechanics who had only just finished some repairs on it... They'll be putting in some overtime on it now!

And that's about it. So there we were, primed and ready for action but, thankfully, we weren't needed to cut the car driver free.

Fire engine is rescued from beach

This article is courtesy of the BBC and can be found on their news website...

A fire engine had to be towed off a beach in Somerset after it became stuck in the sand.

Firefighters were called to Berrow beach - near Burnham-on-Sea - on Thursday evening after reports of a gorse fire on the sand dunes.

Three tractors were needed to pull the trapped Devon and Somerset vehicle out.

Five days ago an ambulance became stuck on Burnham-on-Sea beach and on 5 April a man and two young girls were rescued from a 4x4 stuck in the mud at Brean.

Mark Newman from the Burnham Area Rescue Boat (Barb) charity said the firefighters were "simply unlucky".

"We would advise other motorists to take special care when driving along the local beaches avoiding sand and mud.

"It's been a very active few weeks of beach incidents for Barb's 24-hour rescue crews."

A skip, a van and plenty of underage drinking...

Date: 15th April  2008
Time: 2101
Type: Fire
Address: Wollaston Road, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01 and 02
Final Attendance: Normanshurst 01, 02, 05

We were all just leaving from drill night when the bells went. Two lights up for Ladder 1 and Ladder 2. We booked mobile with a crew of six - Dennis Newton (OIC), Mark Saunders (driver), Paul 'Nubbs' Newberry and myself as BA, 'Cheesey' Armes as BA Entry Control and Rachael as No.6.

It seems that a skip was on fire that was spreading to the back of a Transit van and starting to move to the adjacent workshops. Quick action by Green Watch preventing the fire taking hold in the building. We transferred our tank of water to Ladder 1 while Rachael went off in search of the nearest hydrant (about 150 metres away on the junction with Norwich Road). Mel Buck had put in an assistance message (Make Pumps 3) as it was looking likely that the building was going to be involved more heavily than it was.

Nubbs and I had BA on and were waiting by BA Entry Control in case we were needed. We were immediately surrounded by a throng of around thirty children, teenagers and adults. Everyone was jockeying for position to get the best view. It became apparent quite quickly that many of the youngsters had what must be a fashion accessory in that neck of the woods - a bottle of vodka or cans of some cheap lager. They tended to be boisterous and lippy so we set about clearing them from the immediate area and setting up a cordon with our magic Traffic tape. That stuff has the stopping capability of a brick wall - no one crosses the thin red line!

Thankfully we weren't out long and got back on station bang on 2200hrs.

BA drill - search and rescue

There always seems to be such a long gap between our BA drills. And we haven't had any decent BA jobs recently so last nights BA drill was a welcome 'refresher'.

The scenario was that we had turned up to a 'persons reported' incident at a second-hand furniture store with a flat above.

The first team committed were Andy 'Cheesey' Armes, Howard Clarke and Rachael 'Princess' O'Connell. They went into the smoke house at first floor level (the flat) and had to find their way to the staircase, down to the 'shop' and carry out search and rescue.

Once they had reached the ground floor, our team (myself and Ian 'Billy' McMillan) were sent into the flat searching off the lefthand wall. I went as number one, feeling my way through the smoke, doing the BA Shuffle and keeping up a running commentary (this helps to plant the route in your mind and also keeps your oppo informed of what's happening).
We made our way through the kitchen, lounge and into a small bedroom - searching each room thoroughly as we went. In the bedroom I could just make out the cot and inside a tiny 'baby'. By rummaging in the bed clothes I found another 'infant' while Billy checked the rest of the room. A quick radio message back to BA Entry Control to confirm we had casualties and were making our way out.

Billy took over the lead while I followed carrying the two dummies. Once we had got these outside we checked the contents of our cylinders and then recommitted to complete the search of the 'flat'.

All in all, it was a good wear - we completed the task, found the casualties and only picked up a few minor learning points...

Time then to service the BA sets and then make up the two hosereels from the Training pump.

The station clock had just summoned up enough energy to nudge over to nine o'clock and the bells went - two pump shout...  Read more in the next post...

This explains everything!

It seems that firefighters in the US have the same opinion of their officers as many of us do.

Follow the link to see what I mean: White helmets...

Is it bedtime yet?

Date: 9th April  2008
Time: 0120
Type: Shed
Address: Normanston Drive, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01
Final Attendance: Normanshurst 01, 02

Knowing that I'd got a heavy day of Learn and Live presentations today, I just knew that we'd get a shout in the middle of the night. Sod's Law, call it what you like.

I must have only been dozing because I heard the wholetime crew turnout - living barely 100 yards from the station and knowing (sadly) the sound of our engines means you don't have to have the hearing capacity of a bat to know that! I remember thinking to myself, "What's the betting the alerters go off?" And immediately fell asleep again. It could only have been a few minutes later and, yep, the blessed alerter kicks off, shattering the peace. I swear those things could raise the dead!

Again, Sod's Law states that whenever I can't be arsed to get clothes ready for such an eventuality, we get a shout. It's then a case of fumbling around looking for clothes, making sure you go to the right wardrobe - would be a tad unseemly to turnout dressed in womens clothing!

Anyway, my slow departure from home meant I arrive at the station at the same time as Cheesey, who went as driver and I took one of the BA positions.

It was a Make Pumps 2 to a shed between two houses on Normanston Drive, barely a quarter of a mile away.

On arrival we gave our water to Ladder 1 (Green Watch). Howard Clarke and I donned our BA sets as Green Watch already had one team working on this made-to-last, brick built shed. We weren't required so dumped our sets and 'Horney' Ben and I took Ladder 2 off in search of a hydrant. We were able to locate one nearby and were back to dump more water into Ladder 1 fairly quickly.

It took the combined efforts of our two crews to remove tiles from the shed and to extinguish the smouldering joists and rafters.

Everything wrapped up after 3am with our second crew also getting a turnout on the PRT to a washing machine that had been set alight in a car park off the High Street.

I think I got back to sleep after 4am only to be woken by my alarm at 5.30am.

Just hoping that I wouldn't nod off in the Learn and Live presentations...

Fire in derelict building and pumping lots of water...

I've lost track of the times that we've collectively commented that a Tuesday drill night passes so much quicker when we are actually doing something practical.

And last night proved the point.

After doing all the weekly, monthly and quarterly tests on Ladder 2, we changed into fire kit and mounted our trusty steeds (Ladder 2 and the PRT) for an exercise in the drill yard.

I was driving Ladder 2 and we were the first to be mobilised to the incident - fire in a derelict building, persons reported. The story was that three children had been seen entering the building, smoke was then seen issuing from the windows but that the children hadn't been seen leaving.

The two high pressure hosereels were run out, ready for two BA teams to be sent in searching for the children. A covering jet was also provided, as usual, just in case.

The BA teams made good progress, finding two of the casualties before we were warned that the building was in danger of imminent collapse. We then needed to warn the BA crews to evacuate the building as quickly and safely as possible. BA Entry Control contacted the crews on their handheld radios backed up by the rest of us on our Acme Thunderers. These are whistles, similar to those used by football referees, which we all start blowing in short blasts until the BA teams have exited the building.

A quick debrief followed and then all hands needed to make the kit up.

Ladder 2 was due for its quarterly tests on the main pump and the Lightweight Portable Pump (LPP) - which is neither lightweight nor particularly portable!

So it was off to Caldecott Road and set into Oulton Broad with the hard suction, primed the main pump and then suck water from the broad and squirt it back in again. After the required 15 minutes of this it was the turn of the LPP.

And those two hours of drilling had flown by. Much quicker than when we are confined to the classroom for a lecture on a subject that, as ordinary firefighters, is something we are very unlikely to ever deal with. We need to be able to put ladders up, pump water, extinguish fires and be competent BA wearers - that's the vast majority of what we do. Anything more complex than that and it becomes the responsibility of someone in a white helmet being paid far more than us...

Strange how a simple post about drill night has turned itself into a mini rant. Must be my age. I'm hoping that this year I can gain full membership to the Grumpy Old Men club. It's something I could excel at...