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Last drill night we had a drive down to the old Adnams distribution centre in Southwold for a BA Exercise. There were two crews from Normanshurst plus the Clifton Road pump.
Myself and Richard Belsey were the first team to be committed. We traversed a large warehouse space until we made it to the door into the office area. Here we had the 'knickers' stuck over our face masks to completely obliterate our visibility. Once through the door we had to follow the right-hand wall, locate the stairs, climb these and then continue with search and rescue off the right-hand wall.
By the time we got to the top of the stair we had advanced a long way and getting adequate hosereel for the rest of the search was a bit of a problem. After advancing with the classic BA Shuffle down a corridor and into an office and then another office, I located the casualty. We had to find the big bugger! On the way out Richard took the lead after handing over the branch (hosereel) to our second team. We then retraced our steps, correct stair procedure and back out through the warehouse.
By the time I came off air I was breathing very deeply! Note to self: must start exercise programme soon.
Luckily we had a while to recover while the other teams were in. Then a fire ground service on the BA sets – just in case we had a fire priority on the way back and also make up 120m of hosereel…
Debrief over and it was a quickish drive back to Lowestoft to service our BA sets and not be too late getting away!
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