Incident No.
Date: 27th December 2007
Time: 0315
Type: AFA – Make Pumps 2
Address: Denes 3, Birds Eye, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanhurst 01
Final Attendance: Normanshurst 01, 02 and 05, Saxmundham, Holbrook (Firefighter Re-robe unit), Operational Support Unit plus pump from Haverhill, Forward Control Vehicle (FCV) from Beccles, 2 ADO’s (Assistant Divisional Officer) and a DO (Divisional Officer).
The Birds Eye factory in Lowestoft presents us with a multitude of potential hazards – not least the smell of potato waffles being made! Would put you off them for life…
Anyway, 3.15am is a pretty unsociable hour for our little friend to start his merry tune and summon me from my slumbers. When I got across to the station the front doors were shut and just the light for Ladder 2 was on. Either we’d got a job on our own or, more likely, it was a make up.
Looked at the tip sheet to see it was Make Pumps 2 for an AFA but with the added bonus of a possible Ammonia leak. Now this stuff will clear your nostrils even quicker than the Birds Eye Potato Waffles (they’re waffly versatile!).
We were asked by Mel Buck, who was driving for Green Watch, to set into a hydrant on Whapload Road and pass the hose under one of the large entrance gates. Having done this and put hose ramps, cones and lights in place, we went round the back of the factory to rendezvous with Ladder 1.
By this time the incident had been escalated by ADO John Tiffen into a full chemical job! It’s right now that the Cavalry are summoned from all corners of the county to come to one of the other corners of the county!
No action would be taken by the Fire Service until all elements of the chemical response were in place. By now the PRT (Normanshurst 05) had arrived, followed by the FCV and the Saxmundham pump. Saxmundham are the next nearest Chemical station to us and we would need their Gas Tight Suits and wearers to bring us up to our required complement of GTS.
We had everything set up into the zones – hot, warm and cold. A shallow skip was used to provide a decontamination dam. Time was marching on and it really looked like we may see a watery, winter sun rise over the sprawling factory complex.
Thankfully the Birds Eye engineers decided the leak was something they could deal with – possibly brought on by the thought of paying the Special Service charge if the Fire Service did its bit. The likely cost would have been in excess of £10000!
So it was time to make up all the kit and head back to the station.
Back on station and we found the Holbrook pump being filled with diesel having probably only just made it to Lowestoft as the stop message went in. Not sure how close to Lowestoft the OSU and support pump actually got but they couldn’t have been very far away. That’s one heck of a journey – maybe a 140 mile round trip! And they didn’t even get a cup of tea for their troubles.
All these resources coming from across Suffolk may seem like overkill and on this occasion it possibly was. But it’s no good waiting till an incident goes tits up to get the troops rolling. There’s no harm in ‘going large’ and then scaling back if the incident doesn’t get as busy as expected.
Leave a Reply