Is it bedtime yet?

Date: 9th April  2008
Time: 0120
Type: Shed
Address: Normanston Drive, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01
Final Attendance: Normanshurst 01, 02

Knowing that I’d got a heavy day of Learn and Live presentations today, I just knew that we’d get a shout in the middle of the night. Sod’s Law, call it what you like.

I must have only been dozing because I heard the wholetime crew turnout – living barely 100 yards from the station and knowing (sadly) the sound of our engines means you don’t have to have the hearing capacity of a bat to know that! I remember thinking to myself, "What’s the betting the alerters go off?" And immediately fell asleep again. It could only have been a few minutes later and, yep, the blessed alerter kicks off, shattering the peace. I swear those things could raise the dead!

Again, Sod’s Law states that whenever I can’t be arsed to get clothes ready for such an eventuality, we get a shout. It’s then a case of fumbling around looking for clothes, making sure you go to the right wardrobe – would be a tad unseemly to turnout dressed in womens clothing!

Anyway, my slow departure from home meant I arrive at the station at the same time as Cheesey, who went as driver and I took one of the BA positions.

It was a Make Pumps 2 to a shed between two houses on Normanston Drive, barely a quarter of a mile away.

On arrival we gave our water to Ladder 1 (Green Watch). Howard Clarke and I donned our BA sets as Green Watch already had one team working on this made-to-last, brick built shed. We weren’t required so dumped our sets and ‘Horney’ Ben and I took Ladder 2 off in search of a hydrant. We were able to locate one nearby and were back to dump more water into Ladder 1 fairly quickly.

It took the combined efforts of our two crews to remove tiles from the shed and to extinguish the smouldering joists and rafters.

Everything wrapped up after 3am with our second crew also getting a turnout on the PRT to a washing machine that had been set alight in a car park off the High Street.

I think I got back to sleep after 4am only to be woken by my alarm at 5.30am.

Just hoping that I wouldn’t nod off in the Learn and Live presentations…