Date: 14th May 2008
Time: 2055
Type: Kitchen
Address: Clapham Road Central, Lowestoft
Initial Attendance: Normanshurst 01 and 02
Shouts are like buses because you can wait ages for one and then three come along together…
And that’s just what happened last night.
I’d just sat down in front of my PC, trying to get myself motivated to do update one of my customers’ website. One sip of my tea, fingers poised above the keyboard and my alerter decides it’s time for me to go for a jog over to the station.
I think this shout had come through simply as ‘house’, which can cover a multitude of sins. The address should have been the giveaway – Stanley Street, Lowestoft. And sure enough it turned out to be ‘false alarm, good intent’ – someone had seen smoke coming out of a building and naturally thought the place was on fire – except that it was actually the smokehouse on the corner of Stanley Street and Raglan Street!
So within 20 minutes I was back home and sipping my luke warm brew, feeling even less inclined to start any work. I don’t think it was much over half an hour later and we’re off again. This time it’s a kitchen fire on Clapham Road Central.
We arrived at the incident a few minutes after White Watch to find that one BA team were in the property having dealt with a developing fire in the kitchen. Both myself and Howard Clark stood by as the Emergency BA Team and got used to clear the kitchen around the area of the fire. This was just emptying cupboards and then removing them from the kitchen. We pulled a small area of the ceiling down just to ensure that the fire hadn’t took hold on the joists above.
Left the station just after 2200hrs to get the third and final shout of the evening less than an hour later. This time it was to a confirmed fire at the Birds Eye factory in Lowestoft. Thankfully plenty turned in, so I was surplus to requirements and able to get off home to my bed…