Alerter - the firefighters blog

All Quiet on the Eastern Front...

Has the world, or more specifically Lowestoft, suddenly become a safer place?

Have people stopped burning their tea, does no one have prang in their car any more?

We've had just two shouts in the last week, both of which were at silly o'clock in the morning and with nothing for us to do...

Even the kids being on half-term hasn't generated any calls!

You only have to take a look at some of the people in town to get a reassuring feeling that something will undoubtedly need our attention soon...

House Fire - Romany Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft

Date: 21st October 2008
Time: 1214
Type: House
Address: Romany Road, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01 and 02
Final Attendance: Make Pumps 4 - Normanshurst 05 and Clifton 01 plus Beccles 0G (FCV)

Sod's Law is alive and kicking...

Had just sat down at my desk after zapping and M&S Ham and Mushroom Tagliatelli in the microwave and my alerter starts giving it the biggun! Bollocks... I was looking forward to that.

When I got to the station it looked like I'd missed getting on Ladder 2. But a reshuffle saw me get the drivers tally. The call had come through as a house fire on Romany Road, Oulton Broad.

When we arrived we found Red Watch on Ladder 1 deploying a BA team and poor old Danny as pump operator trying to do a hundred and one tasks in the first few minutes.

Al got the BAECO board set up and Jason and Richard donned BA ready to enter the house. I started to dump our tank of water into Ladder 1 while Ben went off in search of a hydrant.

Rachael and Paul Henderson were the first BA team committed and were faced with multiple seats of fire - usually a good indication of arson. This also presents a far greater danger to firefighters entering the building as the fire spread and its location is all pretty unpredictable. It's not like a kitchen fire where, funnily enough, it's just the kitchen involved. I think there were at leats four separate fires in this property.

Rachael and Paul made it to the first floor and did a good job in knocking down a fire in one of the bedrooms. Other BA teams were committed to tackle the other blazes.

And all of this requires water, which we were rapidly running out of. The nearest hydrant was some distance away and, when the cover was lifted, full of earth. We had to dig this out by hand enough to be able to get the standpipe attached. Only problem now was that we couldn't actually get the thing turned on. Jammed solid. So, after much brute force (which isn't much from me and Ben!), we got water flowing - muddy at first - but at least we could now supply water to the pumps.
Eight lengths of 70 later and we had reached Ladder 1 - who needs to go to the gym?

It looked like the fire(s) had been successfully dealt with when we could see an ominous buildup of smoke rolling along the hall ceiling towards the open front door. The same dark smoke was now seeping from under the roof tiles and out of the dormer window. The two BA teams in the house and the team stripping tiles from the roof were ordered out of the property. An, as yet, undiscovered fire had really taken hold on the ground floor of the house. Begz and his BA partner were able, with a bit of effort, to make an entry to this room and start to knock down the flames.

It's easy to see how an incident like this eats up resources and can so easily endanger the lives of firefighters. Multiple seats of fire can catch out even the most experienced and switched on crews.

By now the incident had been made Make Pumps 4 and were joined by the Forward Control Vehicle (Beccles Zero Golf), acting as control point for the incident.

We now had SOCO on scene, followed by TV, radio and press - too late for the action but they got some good shots of us making up the 'miles' of hose and extended hosereels.

And, as quickly as it all started, we were off back to Normanshurst for tea and medals. Actually there was no tea but the medals are looking good!

Got back to my desk at 3.45pm, three and a half hours after dashing out, and picked up where I'd left off - eating my now cold and congealed M&S Ham and Mushroom Tagliatelli...

Firefighters Know Their Onions...

Date: 20th October 2008
Time: 1951
Type: Smoke issuing
Address: Britten Centre, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01 and 02

I didn't really look at the tip sheet - only to see we were heading for The Britten Centre in Lowestoft and reports of smoke being seen.

We all thought it would be a Smoke Cloak that had activated in one of the shops of the Britten Centre. Smoke Cloaks are an automated way of filling a shop with smoke to make it virtually impossible for a burglar to find their way into (or out) of the shop once the burglar alarm has been activated.

Cheesey was driving and he headed for the pedestrian entrance to the shops between the Library and the Elderley People's Club. Just as we pulled up Steve Mullen (OIC of White Watch tonight) called us up on the handheld radio to suggest we approached from this direction. Cheesey took Ladder 2 down the footway between the buildings, stopping outside QD.

Wisps of smoke could be seen coming from one of the permanent (and well secured) market stalls). As Ladder 2 was closer (White Watch had come into the Britten Centre via the Bus Station) we used the Combi tool (cutters and spreaders) to force entry to the stall through one of its metal roller shutters.

As an orange glow became more obvious under the shutters, I ran out two lengths of 45 and charged it. It's usual practice to run out a covering jet like this in case things go tits up and the hosereel just isn't enough...

Mel and Greg set about the shutters - cutting and spreading until a nice 12 inch high aperture had been made. Right on cue, a keyholder for the stall arrived, opened another shutter, allowing the hosereel to douse the small fire that was situated under the counter.

And with everything out and all the gear stowed it was time for everyone to practice their Pete Beale (remember him Eastenders fans) impressions...

"Pound o' carrots, get ya luvverly carrots here sweetheart"

"Melons, luvverly ripe melons"

Thankfully, before long, we were off back to Normanshurst and all the would-be barrow boys called it a night...

Normanshurst 01 turning out...

Found this on YouTube. Was filmed on 28 May 2005, so someone may be able to work out which Watch this is...

Stand from under!

That was close...

Having Your Cake and Eating It... (just!)

Other headlines I considered included:

"The Icing on the Cake"
"A Walk on Hallowed Turf"
"The Spicer of Life in the Fire Service"
"Suffolk Fire and Rescue Doesn't Overspend on Catering Budget"

I recently received an invitation to lunch at Endeavour House (the Hallowed Turf) with the Audit Commission. The informal lunch would give us, the chosen few, a chance to show what good work we were doing in Community Safety.

Al Soards and myself had been invited because of our work on the Learn and Live presentations. Andy 'Begz' Jackson was going on the strength of the sterling work he has put in with co-ordinating Home Fire Safety Checks with local (and now countywide) care agencies.

Nine of us gathered in Dorothy (a room in Endeavour House and not a real women!) ready for a 1pm lunch. We had arrived in good time and witnessed the arrival of our lunch - not the hoped for three course meal but two trays of sarnies and a few cakes.

Sally from the Audit Commission was running late so we started to demolish the sandwiches, ensuring enough were left for Sally and ACFO Fry.

With everyone present we all had the chance to explain the CS work that we were undertaking. Very quickly you realise that firefighters from across Suffolk are putting in bucket loads of work on CS. This includes Learn and Live, FireBreak, Too Young To Die, Home Fire Safety Checks and working with care agencies, to name just a few.
Much of the CS work is done by retained firefighters. This is in addition to the emergency cover they give to their communities and their 'day jobs'.

And some of the best schemes are developed at grassroots by wholetime and retained firefighters alike.

I hope Sally got the picture that Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service has a fantastic resource in its frontline staff. And all this in probably the cheapest to run fire service in the UK. Let's hope that ACFO Fry has also taken onboard the commitment and dedication shown by wholetime and retained firefighters across Suffolk. Ensuring that this commitment, dedication and goodwill continues is key to the continuing improvement within the Brigade.

And the only thing that cast a shadow over the proceedings was the flying visit of a certain County Councillor. Said Councillor should have been at the lunch but had been delayed in other meetings. Instead we were greeted to a stilted thank you and a Royal family type question of, "Have you travelled far?" This followed by a totally insensitive question about a fatal fire that had occurred in Felixstowe.

This was the cue for the Normanshurst contingent to grab some of the remaining cakes and head for the exit!

PS (not sure if you need a PS in a blog...) The reference to cakes and icing was brought about by the rather unusual presentation style of some muffins today. These weren't the big buggers that you buy at Tesco's, they were the small versions. The tops were cut off and each half had a dollop of synthetic cream and half a glace cherry on top. Tight or what!

It's a Rollover!

Date: 8th October 2008
Time: 1630
Type: RTC, HGV on side, person trapped
Address: Horn Hill, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 05, 01 and 02

I was actually at home when the alerter went off - had come home early to do a few bits of painting (DIY not watercolours).

Was jogging up the road when I could hear my name being called. The voice was faint, almost inaudible, but with a definite out-of-breathiness to it. I looked round and could see Dennis pedalling hard for the station. "Put my tally up, put my tally up", came wafting up the road. I waved my acknowledgement as I dodged the traffic on Normanston Drive.

The tip sheet said it was an HGV on its side, person trapped, located at the Asda roundabout at Horn Hill on Lowestoft.

As we went over the bascule bridge traffic was backing up in the two lanes approaching Asda. I had to take it pretty slowly in the oncoming lane hoping that approaching traffic would see us coming. Wrong way round the first roundabout to then be greeted with the sight of an articulated lorry on its left hand side on the Lings roundabout.

The lorry was carrying a forty foot container holding rolls of paper from SCA Recycling on Victoria Road. Witnesses said the driver wasn't driver quickly as he negotiated the roundabout. His load must have shifted as he turned right causes the whole thing to roll to the left. That's 22 tons of paper plus the lorry, making a total of around 39 tons. Luckily no one was standing on the pavement where the truck ended up.

Nothing we can do as heavy lifting is required. We went back to Normanshurst on standby while Green Watch were at the scene waiting for the crane to do its bit.

And to think, on Tuesday night we had a lecture from George Moran all about HGV RTC's. We'd all been muttering that we never have anything like that around here!

 

Have you heard the one about the firefighters and the elephant?

No, it's not the start of a crappy joke, this was for real!

Last Wednesday the alerters went off sometime after 10am, just as was I departing to deliver a load of paperwork to the accountants (in the hope that they may be creative in their accountancy practices...).

Got to the station to find that Blue Watch were off on a Water Rescue exercise and three of our wholetime/retained crew were needed to make up the numbers (Ian 'Billy' McMillan, Ben 'Horney Ben' Horne and Rachael 'Princess' O'Connell). We then kept a crew on station to cover the town.

You can read more about the fallout from this exercise in a later post.

We were informed that while on standby there would be some Community Fire Safety work that needed attending to. It couldn't be something as simple as a visit to a little old granny to give advice and install a smoke detector. That would be too easy!

It seems that Roman Hill Middle School were successful in bidding for an elephant at a charity auction in Norwich. Successful to the tune of £7000! You could probably get a real one for that amount, although you'd be for ever shovelling shit! You'd have the best roses in town though...

The elephant - 'Intricate Izzy' - was secured to a trailer being towed behind a van from the school. We followed the van in the PRT and were met by a wall of noise as we approached the school. Around 300 kids shouting and chanting 'Izzy, Izzy'.

Let's just pause for a few seconds and answer a couple of questions I'm sure you've already asked yourself...

Why has a school bought an elephant? And why were Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service roped into carrying Izzy into the school?

Answers for both questions... I'm still not sure!

Read this article that has appeared in this weeks Lowestoft Journal,which may help with why they've bought Izzy.

As to why we were invited to carry Izzy... Well I think one of our firefighters has a sister working as a teacher at Roman Hill Middle and we have done plenty of educational visits with them too.

Now back to the arrival of Izzy at the school...

The van and trailer carrying Izzy drove through the assembled throng of children and up to the school entrance. And because Anglia TV weren't there as yet myself, Al Soards, Greg Osborne and Jason Balls manhandled Izzy back to the gates.

All the children we reset in position as the camera was readied. Then it was off through the screaming masses with us carrying Izzy. And in true TV style, we had to do a retake!

There then followed photos for the press (we can autograph these, for a price!) and a short interview with the reporter from The Lowestoft Journal. She asked me what I thought about being asked to carry an elephant and I replied, "In this job you expect the unexpected". I thought this was a cracking quote as did the lads, unfortunately it didn't make it in to the paper...

And that was it.

Back to the station for sausages, egg, beans and chips courtesy of Lil and Amanda and then back to the office to pick up where I left off four hours previously.