Alerter - the firefighters blog

Firefighters 'tug-o-war' rescues horse...

It seems like I've hardly been in bed above five minutes when my little noisy companion kicks off - that's my alerter and not the present Mrs. C.

Sluggishly I get dressed, really not wanting this at all and jog up the road softly effing and blinding to myself.

Blue Watch, with only a crew of four, have mobilised to a horse stuck in a ditch at Camps Heath, about three miles from the station. The Unimog is required too and goes mobile with a retained crew of Mel Buck and Ben Horne.

The rest of us plonk ourselves down expecting a long wait. But, by now, Ladder 1 has arrived at the incident and its obvious they'll need a bit more muscle... So the bells go for Ladder 2 and, with a cheery wave, we wish them well as they head for the entombed horse.

However, our smugness doesn't last as the bells toll again, this time for the ERT. Very audible effing and blinding now... That's our cue to head off towards Camps Heath.

We arrive at Dairy Farm and can see, in the distance, the lights surrounding the spot where the horse is stuck. More lighting is taken from the ERT as well as a host of other gear that may come in useful for unsticking the horse.

Mel and Dennis try to find a safe route for the Unimog to get across the muddy pasture / marsh and decide to give it a go. Mel reversed the Unimog through the gateway but, almost immediately, the drivers side started to sink rapidly into the soft ground. It was now the case of rescuing the Mog as well as the horse!
We attached the winch cable from the front of the Unimog to the front of Ladder 2 and Mel was able to winch himself back on to a firmer footing.

The only option open to us now was a manual extrication. A line was tied around the horse's neck and around 12 of us set to in giving gentle but firm pulls. A change of direction saw the horse start to come free of the mud and eventually fully clear. She looked and sounded in a sorry state - laying very still and snorting quietly. She was given a few minutes to regain her composure as we started to make up all or gear. And a short rest was all Shannon needed. I could see her and her stable mate being led across the muddy ground towards the farm, with Shannon not looking too worse for wear.

And that was that. Back to Normanshurst to clean all the gear and head off home - over two hours afterbeing so rudely awakened...

Medical - apparently I'm still alive!

Is it really three years since my last medical for the Fire Service?

Well, here it was again... I'd dried myself out, weaning myself off the daily diet of 10 pints of Guinness and two Babycham chasers. I'd even gone a couple of weeks without a Tesco's blow-out fried breakfast. I was determined to be at my peak for the medical!

Mel was ahead of me and was already making the ladies from Occupational Health wish they'd stayed in Ipswich. In fact the team had to confer over the strange sightings witnessed when peering into Mel's left ear. It seems that all they could see was a big red fire engine. Fire Service to the core is our Mel. Sad to say this isn't the case. They were actually looking straight through and out of his right ear and could see Ladder 1 in the drill yard beyond!

Being as blind as a bat I had to do the eye test with and without my specs. This was all taking a long time and the nurse was definitely getting confused. She couldn't work out how my eyesight was deteriorating right before her eyes. Luckily she realised that a bit of finger trouble on her part meant that I was viewing the slides out of sequence. Once that was sorted I was able to read the name of the makers on the bottom of the slide.

After a few big puffs into the Vitalograph blowing thing it was off to provide a urine sample. Thank God for that. I'd been hanging on to this bladder full for the last hour and was relieved to hear that I could get some relief... A tad concerning when the nurse came into the Officers toilet with me but by now I was ready to go. Seemed she wasn't planning on staying just pointing out the little cup that was standing on top of the toilet cistern.

"I'd like you to give me a sample of your urine in that small pot. When you've finished just leave it where it is". And with that she turned and left.

Bugger me, I thought. I know I'm desperate to go but there's no way I'm gonna be able to fill that pot from here.

Well, I tried my best. A quick apology to any Officers that may use that toilet in the next day or so. I'm sure the toilet seat, cistern, walls and floor will dry out soon...

So now my pee gets checked... Are they looking for traces of performance enhancing drugs (on my performance you'd have to look very hard) or are they checking to see if I'm pregnant? No, it seems that all they do is hold my sample up to a Dulux paint colour chart and note down the nearest colour. Mine matched most closely with Hint of Straw - would look nice in our hallway...

That's stage one complete. Now off to the Officers' Dorm for the auditory test and the step test.

I slip on the 70's style headphones and am given a button to press each time I hear a sound. Left ear first and all's going well until someone fires up Ladder 1 outside the window, in the drill yard. Now I've got a low rumble in my ears as I try to pick up sounds that only a pack of dogs could hope to ear. After what seemed an eternity the test was complete and a remark was added to the test form - 'Loud fire engine in drill yard!'

And now to the Grand Finale - the Chester Step Test. Step up, step down in time to the beeps on the tape. The speed of the beeps increases every two minutes and at the same time my heart rate is checked and I have to give an assessment of how diffcult I'm finding the task - Very, very easy to F**k me, I'm shagged out!

Time to stop and have a graph drawn of my efforts. Good and only one point from being Excellent. Not bad for a 40 something...

Seems only right and proper that I should celebrate tomorrow with a Tesco breakfast and a bag of five custard doughnuts!

Time to buy a lottery ticket...

Bugger all to do with firefighting this post but made everyone smile except me...

Left work at lunchtime to toodle off down to the opticians. No sooner had I hit the mean streets of Lowestoft and a seagull, with laser guided precison, crapped on me from a long, shallow dive.

One hit to the collar of my shirt, another on the shoulder, two hits to my left leg, a shoe and a nice little dollop on my mobile.

So straight back into the office to get cleaned up before having a close encounter with the comely optician. I don't expect the aroma of bird shit up her left nostril would have been too pleasant...

And so, with nice dark damp patches on the front of my trousers, I hurried off to the opticians.

Fire - Corton Cliffs, again...

Someone is obviously getting some sort of perverse pleasure in setting multiple fires up on Corton Cliffs and last night, the added bonus, of a fire right down on the beach.

And so, when the alerters went off last night, everything at Normanshurst was tipped out. Ladder 1 with Green Watch onboard had taken the initial call but very quickly made it Make Pumps 3 with the Unimog required too.

I drove the ERT and we headed off towards Corton Road. Dennis Newton passed a message via talk through to get us to set into the hydrant that's situated just where the houses end on Corton Road and the Warren starts. It was eight lengths from us to Ladder 2 and then on from them up to Ladder 1.
Before the the line of 70 was complete I started to trickle water into the hose to let it start on its way, therefore ensuring that water gets delivered more quickly once the 'water on' command is given.

And then it was just a case of ensuring that I'd always got a good level in my tank and push water up the line at about 7 bar.

Meanwhile two seats of fire were being attacked from the top of the cliffs with hosereels, 45's and beaters. Down on the beach, 'Billy' and Rachael were getting to grips with the fire down there from our very own ship of the desert - the Unimog.

So for around two hours I was on my tod, pumping water to the 'action' about 300 metres away.

My boredom was alleviated by the arrival of three recruits from the course that's underway at Normanshurst. They'd come to see what sort of job we'd got and see the Fire Service in action - or in my case, inaction!

As they seemed interested in what was happening I told them all I knew. And then, after a full two minutes, they knew as much as me!

Finally got back on station as the clock struck twelve - midnight that is... Crawled into bed at 1 - night, night...

Firefighter urges Ipswich residents to stay at home...

Tomorrow, I'm urging the good people of Ipswich to stay at home and not to venture out at all.

Why?, I hear you ask. Has Swine Flu taken hold of Ipswich? Is some sort of emergency expected? Or will there be a mad man on the loose? Quite possibly two out of three to be exact! 

Good old Suffolk Fire and Rescue require me to do an EFAD (Emergency Fire Appliance Driver) Refresher course. It's only one day but on that day, tomorrow, I get to do a few blue light runs around the Ipswich area to satisfy the powers that be that I'm safe enough to remain as a turnout driver.

So, Ipswich, you've been warned!

Fire in stables - Make Pumps 3

I really need to get out more often!

Last night I sat at home watching the Eurovision Song Contest (the first time in years - honest!) and almost enjoyed the spectacle. I'd made it though all 26 entries without falling asleep - an achievemnet worthy of some sort of trophy in itself!

The bouncy and far too happy Russian hosts had just opened the voting when my alerter got my vote by singing its own little tune.

Over at the station I ripped the tip sheet from the printer and saw we were off to a fire in some stables and there were probably horses trapped inside. With a crew of six we headed out off towards Blundeston not really sure of what we'd find.

Cheesey put Ladder 2 in the fend off position behind Ladder 1 and we set about getting our tank of water dumped into Ladder 1. A quick glance at the brick built stable block was enough to register that there were flames pouring out at each end and along the roof.

I then ran out a line of 45, using three lengths to ensure we'd got some spare to play with. Unfortunately we couldn't put water through this line as the only water left was in Ladder 1 and this was supplying the hosereels.

A good source of water was found when we were told that a house about 150 metres away had got an outdoor swimming pool. Four firefighters set off with the LPP (Lightweight Portable Pump) followed by others carrying hard suction and lengths of 70 (myself included).

A hydrant had also been found, some distance away, outside Blundeston Prison. And by now the ERT (NT06) had arrived and dumped it's tank into Ladder 2. So I went back to the branch on the 45 I'd run out ready for a drop or two of water. We were then pulled out to don BA as a large section of the roof was made of corrugated asbestos. And with plenty of these nasty little fibres flying about you don't want to breathing too much of them in.

Steve 'Dobbie' Hollington (White Watch) and I got our sets on and returned to the front of the stables - Dobbie on the hosereel and me on the 45. Other teams were fighting the fire from the rear of the stables.

And that was pretty much all my involvement. I needed to get back to Lowestoft and was able to swap with Mel Buck who'd brought out tea and coffee in the station van. Unfortunately the crews didn't get back to Normanshurst until well after 1am this morning.

So I'd missed all the voting on the Eurovision but was glad to hear that our entry had come a creditable fifth. And this is the last time I'll admit to having watched the Eurovison Song Contest...

Forgot to mention that all the horses were safe.

Rumour has it that one of the horses has a serious smoking habit and dropped a lighted match while trying to light his roll up.

Firefighters rescue rave dummies...

The retained firefighters at Normanshurst had a somewhat extended BA drill last night. We were also covering the town as Green Watch had taken the Water Rescue van (NT0V) and were off up the river having a paddle about.

The scenario saw Ladder 2 (NT02) followed by the ERT (NT06) tip out to a fire in a disused warehouse that was staging a rave. There were multiple persons reported and the added bonus of cylinders stored in an adjacent outbuilding.

I was driving Ladder 2 and we pulled up short of the drill yard which was already heaving with a Recruits Course (now known as Approved to Ride) and some of our guys playing with the new Tirfor winch (the TU32 for all you winching experts!).

First job was to get the ground monitor set up to deluge the outbuilding. Three lengths of 70 were run out to this and three lengths of 70 run out from the hydrant to Ladder 2. Water on to the monitor. At the same time as the monitor was being got to work the hosereel was being extended, giving us a working length of 120m - enough to get from Ladder 2, across the drill yard and right round inside the 'disused warehouse' - the smokehouse. Then it was the covering jet consisting of three or maybe four lengths of 45. And, if this was a real incident, as pump operator I'd have been putting back radio messages too..

I was somewhat detached from the action and could only watch from 100m away as BA teams were committed to the 'warehouse'. Then, right in my line of sight, one of the drill yard flashing red lights started up, accompanied by the turnout alarm. The four of us that were riding Ladder 1 - myself, Denis Newton, Pete Brown and Richard 'Shambles' Lambert - ran back to the appliance bay with me heading for the printer and the tip sheet. What feat of heroics were we about to perform? What blazing inferno were we about to valiantly extinguish? None by the looks of it. Automatic Fire Alarm (AFA) at a local carpet warehouse. But you never know. Just because it's an AFA doesn't mean that it isn't, in Denis' vernacular, 'going like a Bastard!'

Within a few minutes we had pulled up at the carpet warehouse and there was no immediate sign of fire. Rather suspiciously, there was a van parked outside belonging to an alarm company. And, sure enough, an alarm engineer sheepishly stuck his head out of the door to see what all the excitement was. False Alarm, engineer working on system...

Back to Normanshurst and pick up where we left off.

The only two BA wearers still to go in were myself and Shambles. We were then starting to don up when the turnout alarm sounded yet again. While struggling to free myself from my BA set, the crew for Ladder 1 was rejigged so that we could get our wear in.

I went as team leader with a brief to enter on the ground floor, follow the right hand wall until we found the stairs and then take these to the first floor. From there conduct search and rescue off the left hand wall.

A gauge check just before we enter the smoke filled 'warehouse' and then in till we found the stairs. Made quick progress up the stairs and with enough hosereel on the first floor we started our search. The first room we entered was a bathroom - now what a bathroom was doing in this 'disused warehouse' I don't know. After a bit of fumbling and back tracking, we located the toilet door. I think this had previously been hidden behind a cupboard. But once that cupboard had landed on my foot the door to the toilet became more obvious!

And here was our first casualty, stuck behind the toilet door. Now why is it that it's always the big buggers that collapse in the bog? I squeezed into the toilet and started to push the casualty out to Shambles. A quick radio message to BAECO and we made our way out.

With the casualty outside we checked out pressure and were both on 140bar and made the decision to re-enter and continue the search.

We moved quickly back to where we had found our casualty and resumed the search. In and out of a number of rooms until we came to a room with armchairs and other items of furniture. Shambles had gone out to the side of me to maximise our search area and found a casualty on the floor, just below a window. Message back to BAECO and retrace our steps - Shambles carrying the casualty and me bringing out the hosereel and branch. Both of us were now down to 90bar so time to call it a day.

With five of our number out on Ladder 1 it fell to us remaining to make up all the hose, the hosereel and service the BA sets. Time for the more elderly amongst us to take a breather...

As usual when we are doing something practical, the time flies by. And it was a good drill, made to be a lifelike as possible, even down to the music blaring out at this rave gone wrong.

Next week we have a lecture to look forward to all about sewers and silos - I can just feel the excitement building!

Fire - Corton Cliffs, Lowestoft

For once the timing of my alerter going off was perfect. I'd just finished my spag bol and wiped up the last bit of juice with a piece of garlic bread when the alerter kicked into life. Oh well, the washing up will have to wait...

When I jog through the appliance bay I'm met by the great and good of Red Watch (and Rachael) waiting to come on duty at 6pm.

Ladder 1 is already out with Green Watch on board and there's just one light up for Ladder 2. A quick look at the tip sheet and it's Make Pumps 2 on Corton Cliffs in Lowestoft for an undergrowth fire. Just as everyone starts arriving, the bells go again. It's now Make Pumps 3 and the ERT is required.

Not knowing how many we'll get turn in, I hang back and take the drivers tally on the ERT (NT06). Go to stick my fire kit in a locker only to be gentled reminded by the onlooking Red Watch that there is space for the drivers kit on the nearside of the appliance.

Ladder 2 mobilises with a crew of five as we wait to get a full crew of six. Knowing the area we're going to it's always handy to have as many firefighterson a crew as possible. Dragging hose through undergrowth, establishing a water supply from the not-too-close hydrant all eats up resources.

So, with a full complement on board, I head out into the early evening traffic.

As we pulled out of the bay I reached up and pressed the central locking switch - locking all doors and, more importantly, all lockers. This is a temporary measure to prevent any of the lockers opening while we're moving. It has happened on the way to a job and a length of hose from the Holmatro cutting gear, in its nice blue bag, disappeared. Not only that but one of the draws came unlatched and slid out, nearly cutting a cyclist in half! That really does constitute a 'near miss. An entourage came up from Ipswich, including a representative from John Dennis, to investigate the problem. And, thankfully, the locker came open twice during their test drive... So, the use of the central locking is an interim measure until a more permanent solution is found!

Right, back to the plot...

We were about to turn into Corton Road for the long straight run to the fire when we were instructed to approach from the opposite end. So we carried on towards Yarmouth, past Tesco's, down Corton Long Lane and then back along the cliffs. I even had the chance to try out the three stage sirens - using the different settings depending on your distance from a 'hazard' - changing between each one by simply pressing on the road horn button situated on the steering wheel.

With smoke drifting across the road I pulled up in the fend off position, even though the road was closed off behind us - can't be too careful especially with some of the numpties out there on the road!

We extended the hosereel and then I ran out two lengths of 70 from Ladder 1 to us. A hydrant was being set into about 400 metres away going into Ladder 2, delivering to Ladder 1 and then finally to me on the ERT. Once the water supply was established, a 45 was run out on to the cliffs to enable the crew to blast the undergrowth and root out any hotspots.

I had an early shower, courtesy of a stuck non-return valve on the collecting head of the tank fill. I'd plugged the 70 from Ladder 1 into the collecting head and given the 'water on' to Dave Ives only to be met with a torrent of water heading in my direction. Water off was my next request to Dave, funnily enough, as I stood there dripping just as ADO (or is it Group Manager now) Labdon strolled up. I think his immediate thought was that I'd f**ked up but not on this occasion... The non return valve had stuck in the open position allowing the water going in to the collecting head to come out just as quickly! Use of a Finger, Index, Mark 1 rectified the problem...

Thankfully the fire was extinguished pretty quickly and we were able to head off after a quick wash down of the hose and other gear.

And then home to face the congealed remainder of the spag bol and the washing up...

Suffolk's firefighters have a busy few days...

Already the month of May is proving to be a hectic one for Suffolk's firefighters.

The unseasonably dry weather - we didn't even get April showers - has seen an unusually high number of grass / undergrowth fires in these last few days.

Over the weekend the Unimog from Lowestoft has been to two major grassland / heathland fires. The largest of the two was at Thorpeness Golf Club which escalated to Make Pumps 10 as the fire spread across approximately 100 acres of the golf course. The incident was eating up Suffolk's resources as crews were being relieved by pumps from all over the county.

The Unimog was used through at least three changes of crew which also meant that retained firefighters from Normanshurst were either standing by as a crew or making up numbers with the wholetime Watch.

In the last week we've had 10 shouts - almost unheard of these days. And the same can be said of other stations within Suffolk, some getting a month worth of shouts in just a few days.

And, with a far few of these shouts coming in the middle of the night, most of us are hoping for a few quiet nights to catch up on our beauty sleep - and looking at our lot, they need quite a few quiet nights to catch up on their beauty sleep!

Fire in Thatched Barn, Bungay - Make Pumps 6

Last Wednesday I'd only been in the office about ten minutes after doing a Learn and Live presentation when my faithful friend sprang into life, shattering the peace.

I was fourth in and jumped in the back of our venerable Ladder 2 to hear that we were off to Bungay for a Make Pumps 6 shout. I heard the bit about a thatch but not that it was a thatched barn. So, with our crew of four - Mel Buck as OIC, Simon Reeves as driver and Al Soards and myself in the back - we chugged off towards Bungay.
The ERT, with its superior speed and the fact that's it's 20 years younger than Ladder 2, was soon slip-streaming us before we'd even got as far as Beccles.

As we neared Bungay we could see a pall of smoke rising above the Bungay - Halesworth Road. We pulled up outside the farm to find out what we needed to do. Already at the incident were Ladder 1 from Normanshurst, Beccles, Bungay, Loddon, Halesworth and Harleston. Shortly afterwards the Hydraulic Platform and support pump arrived from Great Yarmouth. By now the incident had been escalated to Make Pumps 10.

As there was only one hydrant close to the farm, the water supply was critical. A water shuttle had already started with the Loddon pump filling up at a hydrant on a nearby housing estate. We joined in with Ladder 2 and the ERT. This still wasn't getting enough water to the fire ground so Mel arranged for us to take over Bury's Ladder 1 (which was at the incident as support pump to Bury's Forward Control Vehicle). I drove Bury's pump, heading for Bungay Fire Station along with the Loddon pump to fill up from their hydrant. Now, with two pumps at each hydrant, we were filling up and forming a queue back at the farm, ready to dump our tanks into either the Beccles or Bungay pumps.

An assistance message had also been put in for the water bowser from Framlingham (Framlingham 09). This has a capacity of around 8000 litres - nearly five times what one of the fire engines can carry. The two man crew set up their dam and dumped their water into this. They then used the hydrant at the fire station while the rest of us reverted back to the hydrant in the estate.

With the dam in place, the Bungay pump took a supply from this to then feed the main jets on the fire ground. As we pulled up we'd sit there and fill the dam as and when it's level dropped.

Refreshments magically appeared in the back of a car - homemade sandwiches, crisps, tea and coffee. A godsend, as the time must now have been past 3pm and my stomach had thought my throat had been cut! I've no idea who our culinary saviour was but a big thank you for feeding in excess of 60 firefighters, it really is appreciated...

Soon after this we headed back to Lowestoft via the cross country route. And on such a glorious day it was nice to be chauffered about in our very own charabanc.

Back at Normanshurst we thought we'd be getting away at 6pm when the night Watch took over. No. They were heading straight out to the job and we'd be on standby, covering the town, possibly till 10pm.

Thankfully Lil, our station cook, had dug out a chicken curry from the freezer. We nuked this and, together with a plate of chips, a meal was created...

And, an hour earlier than expected, we got away at 9pm. So with a shout at 7.15 in the morning, a Learn and Live presentation and then this prolonged shout, I'd spent something like 13 hours in the service of Suffolk Fire and Rescue. That's not a problem... The problem arises when you get back to your normal job next day and have to play catch up...