Alerter

Suffolk Fire and Rescue at the cutting edge - me thinks not!

Last week rumours were rife. The story had got round the station like wildfire.

We were soon to be given training on stab vests! Stab vests - f**k me! Things must be getting rough in Lowestoft if we're being given stab vests. If I'd wanted one of them I'd have joined the boys in blue!

No, you dosey pillock. It's Stab-Fast.

That doesn't sound much better to me. Stab-Fast, Stab-Slow - whichever it is it's going to sting!

And then the penny drops a very long way indeed.

Stab-Fast is a new piece of kit being rolled out across Suffolk for use at RTC's (Road Traffic Collisions). In a matter of seconds these adjustable supports can be attached to a vehicle, giving excellent stabilisation. The kit is simple and virtually firefighter proof - although Al and Shambles haven't been let loose together with one of these.

I did say that this is being rolled out across Suffolk. And it is. Every fire engine in the brigade will have a Stab-Fast. All except dear old Ladder 2 at Normanshurst. Ladder 2 at Bury will have it. All the pumps at Headquarters will have it. But not us.

Is it because Lowestoft is a safer place than the rest of Suffolk (unlikely), is it because in the very near future we may be shuffling off to Norfolk (possible) or is it... Suffolk are just too tight to buy that one extra set?

I think I'm on the right track when we're told that Suffolk decided not to purchase a simple wedge that can be incorporated in the kit, adding to the stabilising effect. How much money did they save by not buying that? Obviously not enough to buy the kit for Ladder 2 at Normanshurst!

And are Suffolk at the cutting edge by introducing this kit? Not likely. Just a quick trawl of the Internet shows me that in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia it's been in use for over two years. And that's without the Germans, the Dutch and everybody else...

Better late than never I suppose.

Me in charge? You're having a laugh!

This has to be a record in recent times - two weeks on the trot and we weren't subject to a lecture!

Mel had devised a drill for two crews and whisked away his helpers for their briefing. Prior to this Mel casually informed me that I would be in charge of the 'incident', being Officer in Charge of the first pump.

No pressure then! I've never done this before and perhaps being given just a few minutes notice was a good idea, any longer and I'd have stayed at home to wash my hair or something lame like that.

It wasn't just me that would be working outside their 'comfort zone'. Pump operators were chosen from the non-appliance drivers - in other words using the main pump is not what they would normally do at a job, they'd be in BA, running hose or one of the hundred other jobs.
My pump operator was Howard Clarke with Paul 'Nubbs' Newberry acting as pump operator on the PRT.

The only information I was given was that we were attending a flat fire, which is all you'll ever get on a tip sheet, and that two pumps were attending.

We pulled up at the 'job' and I could see a women (ably acted by Rachael 'Princess' O'Connell) at the open first floor window. She had a baby in her arms and smoke was issuing from the window. Before we came to a halt I requested that the 9m ladder be placed to effect a rescue here and that a hosereel, a covering jet, and two BA be readied.

I then proceeded to do a 360 of the building, informing Mel that I would put back an assistance message, persons reported. When I got to the rear of the building I could see another casualty hanging out of the first floor window.

When the PRT arrived I instructed Richard Belsey to get a 9m ladder round to the rear to rescue the casualty seen hanging out of the window.

And it's about now that things started to turn to rat shit. Mel applied the pressure by constantly asking when the next BA team was going to be committed, that we needed a covering jet to protect the adjoining building and where was the water??

To compound the lack of experience on my part and that of the pump operators we had some 'problems' dealt to us. Firstly, the hydrant we had set into was 'hit' by a vehicle and put out of action. So, the next hydrant had to be set into. Then Ladder 2 overran its supply and was deemed to be out of action. This meant disconnecting most of the hose from Ladder 2 and reconnecting this to the PRT (including the feed from the hydrant).

At this point we had lost water and had two BA teams in the building. There was nothing we could do but to sound the evacuation signal (short blasts on the Acme Thunderer whistle). Within a minute the two BA teams appeared and made their way to BAECO (Ben 'Horney' Horne). One team didn't have enough air to be recommited so they were told to dump their sets. The second BA team were kept on air to be recommited once we had a good supply of water again.

Getting an adequate supply of water was going to be problematic as the PRT was virtually empty.

For the purpose of the drill I was informed that all casualties were accounted for but we needed to get main jets to work on the building - 3 at the front and 2 to the rear.

Unfortunately, I instructed the crews to make the three deliveries on the PRT into five by using two dividing breeches. With all the hose we had run out already this meant unravelling the spaghetti-like mess. I'd totally forgotten the Lightweight Portable Pump (LPP) on Ladder 2 and was instructed to get this working. So, the now sweating and ever-so slightly knackered crews carried the LPP to the one remaining hydrant and proceeded to get two deliveries to work.

And it was about now that we were given the 'knock off and makeup' instruction.

Considering there were a number of people doing jobs they'd never done before, the whole thing could have been worse. I took a lot away from the drill - there's plenty to think about as OIC, you don't always get the fire engines that would normally attend, the situation is always fluid and if it can go wrong, it will!

The two hour drill session certainly went much quicker than if we were sitting in a lecture fighting off the onset of sleep!

BA Exercise at Bernard Matthews, Holton

There was a somewhat delayed start to this exercise due to a little mishap on our way here.

Anyway, we got our BA sets sorted and were divided into pairs - I was paired up with Gary Smart.

Our task was to enter the disused canteen and kitchen area and count how many fire extinguishers were in there and remember their positions. We would then have to mark on plan where they were sited after we had completed the drill.
Obviously we couldn't fill the place with smoke so we all fitted the faithful 'knickers' to our masks to totally obscure our vision. Just to dispel any myths, we don't use actual knickers, clean or otherwise. Our 'knickers' are just an opaque, elasticated cover that keeps you from seeing anything useful and interesting. Thinking about it, that's exactly what real knickers do. At last, I've worked out where they get their name from!

Back to the drill...

I volunteered to go as No.1 and lead the way round the rooms. In all we found 5 extinguishers amongst the tables, ovens, serving counters, sinks, taps, mixers and all the other catering paraphernalia. Ian 'Billy' McMillan accompanied us as BAI (BA Instructor) and gave us good feedback generally but most notably for our communication between team members.

Once we had marked the floorplan with our 'X's' we changed cylinders and prepared for the second exercise.

This time I was teamed up with John Hubbard, with me as No.2. We entered the building on the ground floor, following the left-hand wall and carrying out search and rescue.
A few relatively minor learning points to take away from this one but overall it's good to get a couple of BA wears in.

And that was it. Just the drive back to Lowestoft, service our sets and away just after 2200hrs.

Hot, sweaty and smelling like kippers!

"It's all in the mind...", said George Moran, talking about the temperature and conditions inside the smoke house at Bury (Bury St.Edmunds) fire station. "The mind plays tricks on you, makes you think it's hotter than it is", he continued. Note to readers - in the interest of brevity I have left out expletives!

So here we were, eight of us from Normanshurst to do our hot fire training - BA Risk Critical 2 to give it its proper title. We had four from Green Watch - Mel Buck, Pete Brown, Al Soards and Chris Randall and then the rest of the motley crew made up from the retained section - myself, Richard 'Shambles' Lambert, Jason Balls and Howard Clarke.

George was giving us a lecture in a style that only George can deliver. It's to the point, there's no waffling and you feel like you've been told 'as it really is'.

After the lecture we made up our BA sets and then had a quick tea break - the ubiquitous cheese and onion sandwiches making their usual appearance!

We divided up into pairs, one wholetime firefighter with one retained firefighter. A good idea as we can all learn from each other whether wholetime or retained. We all work with each other regularly anyway as three of the Green Watch members are also retained firefighters at Normanshurst.

Mel and I paired up with Mel going as No.1 for the first drill. Our brief was to enter the building at ground floor, advance up the staircase and carry out search and rescue on the first floor and the mezzanine floor.

Just to back track, I'll explain how this is hot fire training. There's a room on the ground floor of the smoke house that has a fire set in it. It's literally a couple of bales of straw in a cradle which has water sprayed on every so often just to keep the smoke going. You wouldn't think that this would create much heat but temperatures can reach 200^oC. In fire terms that isn't very hot but it's plenty hot enough for dragging hose around and dragging dummies out!

Anyway, back to the drill. After doing an initial search just inside the door we advanced to the first floor. I swept out to the left on reaching the landing and immediately found a casualty - a tiny baby sized dummy. So back down the stairs and leave the casualty outside. We then resumed the search on the first floor and up onto the mezzanine floor. It's just a tad warm on that mezzanine but thankfully no casualties to manhandle down the Vertical Metal Ladder (VML).
We continued on the first floor until we found a second casualty literally at the end of where we could get to. As Mel had the most air he took the casualty and I led the way out.

We had our debrief which was very positive especially about our communication with each other.

A quick change of cylinder and we were out for our second wear. I was No.1 this time and our brief was to enter the smoke house at first floor level and carry out search and rescue. We took the left hand wall and searched a number of 'rooms' finding two casualties. Again, we had a good debrief followed by copious amounts of water to try and rehydrate ourselves.

The final drill of the day took place after lunch and was a combined drill using all four BA teams. The first team (Pete Brown and Jason Balls) entered the smoke house on the first floor (from the drill tower) carrying a charged 45. Their brief was to advance through the building and find the main staircase (situated on the opposite side of the smoke house). They were to descend to the ground floor and start a search as this was a 'persons reported' incident.

The second team (Al Soards and Shambles) were committed soon after the first team to assist with getting the hose through the building and down the stairs. Al and Shambles were volunteered for this job as it was felt that their strength and destructive powers would undoubtedly clear a path straight through the smoke house!

Next in were Mel and myself. We made it to the top of the stairs where we were informed by one of the other teams that more hose was needed. So we retraced our steps and dragged through another 30 foot or so. By now both previous teams had passed us on there way out, each with a casualty.

When we arrived on the ground floor we started searching off the left hand wall and then entered the fire compartment. We could see most of the room from the glow of the fire and sure enough there was a casualty tucked away behind the fire! Mel led the way out with me bringing the casualty. We stopped for what seemed an eternity to brief team four (Chris Randall and Howard Clarke). Standing there, directly above the fire and carrying the dummy I could feel my legs starting to cook. And with legs like mine they wouldn't have looked out of place as a bit of KFC!

And that was that...

As George had said, "It's all in the mind...". He was right. If you started to think how hot it was then strangely it seemed to get hotter. While I was stood there waiting for Mel to brief team four, I had the chance to let my mind wander and, yes, it started to think "f**k me it's getting hot in here!"

The debrief for this drill and the whole day was very positive - nobody had  cocked up...

Just clearing and cleaning up lweft to do plus the hour and a half drive back to Lowestoft with a bunch of weary firefighters and the very strong smell of kippers!

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...

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...

A little bit of everything...

Last night was our weekly drill night and we had the chance to get off station to carry out an interesting exercise.

Pete Brown and Ian McMillan took charge of the incident which was based on the disused shop and toilet complex and the bottom of The Ravine, in Lowestoft.

The scenario was that a young lad had got onto the roof, started a fire (which involved gas cylinders) and had then injured himself up on the roof - having suspected spinal injuries.

Ladder 2 were first in and got water onto the cylinders from a line of 45 and then from a ground monitor. They then started planning the rescue and we arrived on the PRT to assist. I was driver and pump operator on the PRT and we gave our tank of water to Ladder 2 while the hydrant was being setup and fed to us.

The water pressure from the hydrants in that area have no pressure and it takes an age to fill your tank. At the same time you're trying to keep the other pump supplied with enough water to keep the ground monitor going.

Up on the roof and improvised method of lowering the casualty in the scoop was being devised. After a few adjustments this went very smoothly with the casualty making a gentle descent to ground level.

Time then to make up all the gear, have a debrief and back to Normanshurst for 2100 hours.

I think the general opinion amongst all of us is that we should do more off-site drills. After all we are unlikely to attend a real incident at the drill tower at Normanshurst!

BA Risk Critical 1

Nine of us from Normanshurst spent yesterday with the Training department on our BA Risk Critical 1 session.

The first part of the morning was a refresher lecture covering BA procedures, emergency situations, BA Entry Control and its different stages, guidelines etc.

After tea break it was over to the BA room to make up our sets and be split into teams. I was to lead the last team in (Team 4) which would have Mark 'Frank' Saunders as number 2 and Ian Pettitt as number 3. Teams of three are relatively unusual and, in my experience, tend to not work as well as the traditional team of 2. You can become more spaced out, communication between team members seems to break down and it just seems unwieldy to manage.

While the other teams were committed to the Smoke House I was BAECO - taking tallies, checking briefs, working out time of whistle etc.

Our turn came eventually which was a welcome relief because it was freezing just hanging around outside.

Our brief was to enter the Smoke House through the front door, take a right-hand wall, make our way to the stairs, go up these and continue search and rescue on a right-hand wall.

Just realised I haven't previously explained procedures for moving in smoke and darkness, and how we find our way around in thick smoke.
First of all we will either be told or we will choose a wall to follow - left-hand or right-hand. This becomes your point of reference and, more importantly, your route out. If you came in following a left-hand wall you simply turnabout, put your right hand on the wall and make your way out. It is imperative that the team leader keeps in contact with the wall and is memorising (as best as they can) the route taken.

Because you are moving in possibly thick smoke or it's pitch black you need to adopt a safe method of moving forward into the building.
The team leader will be carrying the hosereel branch with his number 2 pulling in hosereel and making sure it doesn't snag as you go through doorways and round corners. We have to make sure that we don't walk into things, fall down holes or miss any doors that lead off our route. To take care of this we do the BA Shuffle. This involves keeping your weight over your back foot while sweeping ahead and across your path with your front foot, checking the floor ahead of you. In the meantime the arm that is following the wall (and holding the hosereel branch) is making large sweeps up and down the wall - you're looking for door handles and a change of direction of the wall. Your other hand is sweeping up and down in front of your face to make sure you don't walk into any protruding object. Looks weird in daylight but becomes second nature once you're in the building.

Anyway back to our jaunt around the Smoke House. The walls in the smoke house are moveable and had been set into a pattern that I don't think we'd used before. In the first room we searched we found a casualty so made it back outside quickly, as you would hope to do in a real incident. Before leaving the room where the casualty was found we did the customary metre-wide search in case there were more casulaties there. This is what could happen in a real fire - people huddle together for comfort and so it's worth checking the immediate area for more casualties.
Back in to the Smoke House and quickly retrace our steps to where we had found the casualty. We made our way to the stairs, up these and continued the search upstairs where we found another casualty. Made our way out of the Smoke House with the casualty and the hosereel.

We gave a report to BAECO so that he can form a picture of what's happening in the building, which rooms have been searched etc.

Our 'hot' debrief wasn't too bad especially as we were a team of three. Got praised for good communications and searching and for me not to be tempted to move away from my wall to help in the search of rooms.

In the afternoon we had an exercise involving guidelines.These are laid into a building to help following BA teams to make there way quickly to the fire especially if it is some way into the building.

This isn't a favourite task of anybodies and is very rarely used in anger. Some guys who've been in the fire service for 25+ years have never seen them used. But we continue to train with them just in case we have to employ them at an incident.

I was to lead the first team in with Mark Saunders as number 2. As number 1 I had the guideline bag fixed on to my cylinder. My brief was to enter through the front of the Smoke House, take a left hand wall, laying Guideline A.
We did our gauge checks prior to entering and made our way into the billowing smoke and darkness. Mark had wanted to go as number 2 so that he could practice his knot tying. As team leader I find the route and identify points at which the guideline can be tied. Ideally tie-off points should be between waist and shoulder height and the guideline should be relatively taut between tie-offs. We made good progress and reached the Vertical Metal Ladder (VML). Mark tied-off on this and I went up the ladder signalling that I was clear by tapping the carabina of my personal line on the ladder.
At the top of the VML we carried on following the left-hand wall and found ourselves in the lounge at the back of the Smoke House - this is easily identified because of the sloping ceiling to the rear of the room. Mark made a brief sweep into the room and found a casualty almost immediately! We changed our focus from laying the guideline to rescue and started to make our way out. It was then that our Instructor told us to ignore the casualty and continue with the guideline - the casualty was meant for a following team!

Until now I haven't mentioned turn round times, so here goes... The maximum official capacity of our BA cylinders is 200bar, giving an average wear of 32 minutes. This obviously reduces if you are working hard, in extreme heat or are becoming anxious. The minimum we should enter a building with is 160bar. We have to calculate our turn round time so that we have enough air plus a safety margin to allow us to exit the building, ideally before our low-air whistle goes off (this should be at 55bar plus or minus 5bar).
To work out our turn round time we simply halve the amount of air we go in with and add 30. So on this drill Mark entered with 200 and I had 170bar. Our respective turn round time would be at 130bar and 115bar.
As we moved through the Smoke House we did frequent gauge checks and when I was at 120bar I told Mark we would turn round after finding the next suitable tie-off point. This took a tad longer than  expected but we found a fairly good fixing point where the guideline bag was secured. We then turned around, clipped on to our freshly laid guideline and retraced our steps.
I left the building on just over 60bar - maybe a couple of minutes or so away from my whistle going off - so just about right...

We had a good 'hot' debrief but the proof of a good guidline came when following teams were able to get to the far end of the guideline using a minimum amount of air. They also complimented us on a well laid guideline - job done!

The drills could have gone better, we know that. But we never seem to have enough BA training / drills. Being on a multi-pump, chemical station means we have tons of equipment to work with in addition to the basics of ladders and hoses. But the most likely thing that's going to kill or injure a firefighter, in my opinion, is a BA wear that goes tits up. We only have a single two-hour training session each week. In that time we need to put up ladders, work pumps, squirt water, use RTC (Road Traffic Collision) equipment, train for New Dimensions (mass decontamination etc), practice for chemical incidents, do routine checks on our fire engine, fill in our little books of what we've been up to and, if there's time, squeeze in a BA drill!

The title of this course speaks volumes - it's Risk Critical. If we weren't up to scratch the instructors can take individuals off the run until such time as they can display the right skills level. But with such long gaps between BA wears it's really hard to keep up to the required level.

That's enough from me. Time for a quick vocal warm-up. The Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service Male Voice Fog Horns will be in Lowestoft town centre tomorrow crucifying (sorry) many carols and Christmas songs. Our 2 hour 'concert' normally receives donations exceeding £1000. The people of Lowestoft are a generous bunch or perhaps they are just trying to buy our silence!

Then it will be back to the Station for a Christmas dinner prepared by Lil and her team. Bring on those sprouts!