Date: 12th March 2008
Time: 0540
Type: RTC – person trapped
Address: St. Olaves Road, Somerleyton
Initial Attendance: Normanhurst 05, 01, 02
It was only yesterday that some wag remarked that we hadn’t had a night-time shout for some time. OK, 0540 isn’t exactly middle of the night but it sure as hell isn’t anywhere near elevenses either!
By not having all my clothes and shoes ready for the quick change routine it was perhaps inevitable that my Fire Service alarm clock would herald an early call. So, bleary-eyed and muttering, I try not to get two legs in the same hole while hopping weakly on one leg. Lack of co-ordination strikes too as your feet miss your shoes and you fumble to unlock the front door…
Even with this slow start I still make it in first (mind you I haven’t any excuses living as close as I do to the station!). All three appliances are required for an RTC – person trapped.
Cheesey follows me in but is more concerned with the dire need to pee than get his fire kit on! Doesn’t matter though as with us manning two appliances he has time to answer the call of nature and act as driver on Ladder 2.
We arrived at the scene just a few minutes after White watch to find a bright yellow car on its roof in someones front garden. And to get into the garden the car had gone right through a magnolia hedge. Luckily the male driver wasn’t trapped and was being strapped on to the spine board as we arrived to lift him out. Because we needed a route out through the hedge our very own human dynamo – Richard ‘Shambles’ Lambert – was given the job of cutting away at the hedge to make a gap for us.
And that was it really. We made up what little equipment we had used and then it was a leisurely drive back along the country lanes into Lowestoft.
Not sure who put the 999 call in but if this had happened in the middle of the night there is every chance that no one would have seen the car until daylight.
All this and back home by 0630…
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