Today a car ended up in the river at Lowestoft – off the edge of the quay and into the dock.
Cue Armageddon, Charge of The Light Brigade or anything else mildly dramatic you can think of!
As I careered into the drill yard I could see lights up for Ladder1, Ladder 2, the PRT and the Unimog – a full house for Normanshurst. All those lights lit up at once was causing a drain on the National Grid!
There were firefighters heading in all directions and it took a while to find out that it was a water rescue in Lowestoft Dock. Normally water rescue will get a pump and the Unimog from Normanshurst plus the next nearest water rescue team – Princes Street, Ipswich on this occasion. But today the PRT and Ladder 2 were also being sent. Add to this a gaggle (is that the right collective noun) of officers and the scene is set for mayhem down by the river…
I was driving the PRT and we turned out directly behind Ladder 1 for the drive into town. I think I've mentioned in an earlier post that it's not very often we get two pumps turning out together – what a spotters delight that would have been to have seen that today!
And that's as exciting as it got. The car didn't have anybody on board and so the cavalry were returned to their various home stations.
At the same time as all this was happening Control were dealing with an incident on Felixstowe Docks and a cooker fire in Kelsale (near Saxmundham). I think they'd had a hectic half hour or so marshalling pumps and resources around the county.
Now it's back to work, brain in gear (now there's a joke) and try to get some work done…