A shout in the early hours of Valentines Day proved that my alerter was still working… In my haste to get to an earlier shout I had dropped the alerter into a cup of black coffee and watched as the red lights continued to flash from the murky depths. A change of battery and all was well. Perhaps Datanet have actually made a firefighter proof alerter.
Anyway, back to the story.
Just before 2am I was hot footing it around the hall trying to dress as my alerter did its very best to wake the neighbourhood.
As I legged it out of my driveway I could see that the doors to two of the bays were open and two pumps had already mobilised. Even to my half awake brain I knew that I hadn't taken more than a minute or so to get out of the house. How on Earth could one of the retained pumps have made it out before I even got out of my front door. As I was getting dressed I heard a pump leave the station and assumed it was the Watch. This would have been quick for them too as I am normally heading up the road as they pull away.
I ran in to find Cheesey there speaking to Control. It seems that there had been a problem with the alerters meaning that only half of the retained firefighters had got the first shout, probably ten minutes before my alerter had gone off. Control must have wondered what was going on because we always ring them when we have another crew on station and available. This hadn't happened because those arriving in the first wave had all gone out on Ladder 1. Cheesey got Control to activate the alerters again, just in case, and to ensure that we got enough crew to mobilse.
The PRT with Green Watch on board had mobilised with a retained crew on Ladder 1 and Clifton Road to an RTC on Tom Crisp Way on the south side of the bridge. The alerters had been set off again at 01:57 (when my alerter went off) as the incident had gone to Make Pumps Four.
The tip sheet notified us that it was a two vehicle RTC (one of which was a police car) and that there were four persons trapped.
When we arrived at the incident we were greeted by the sight of feverish activity around the two cars. We were tasked with setting up an equipment dump near to the car that was situated in the middle of the road. Cutting gear, GlassMaster, DP extinguisher, teardrop, half-sheets, goggles, combi-tool, ram, generator, lighting and all the other paraphenalia that may be needed.
We worked on this car, along with the Clifton Road crew - stabilising, managing the glass, getting the roof off. A paramedic, myself and several police officers did our best to persuade the driver to leave his car. He wasn't trapped, didn't have any signs of internal or external injuries but refused to leave the car. He said he was in pain and we told him that this could be dealt with when he was in the ambulance. We also told him that it would make it easier for us to deal with his passenger if he was out of the way.
Once the driver was out of the way we were able to get the long board down behind the front seat passenger and begin to slide him onto it. He was then strapped on and removed over the back of the car.
Focus for us now shifted on to the police car. Green Watch plus the first Normanshurst retained crew had been working their socks off to release the two Special Constables. Their car was positioned rather precariously on the grass verge, leaning over to its left on the edge of a fairly steep embankment. Stab-fast was in use to prevent the car slipping or rolling down to the cycle path, 2 metres below. The officers had been very lucky that the car hadn't rolled down the slope as a direct result of the side on impact from the other car.
By the time we moved over to the police car, the driver had been released having suffered injuries to one of his legs. Gaining access to the other officer was proving more difficult. His door had been stove in by the impact of the other car. In fact you could make out the shape of the nose of the car in the passenger door. The officer had taken the full force of the impact and was in considerable pain.
It was impossible to get the long-board down his back so the decision was taken to try and remove the passenger door even though it looked too mangled to budge. However, after some delicate work with the spreaders we were able to swing the door open just enough to give us room to work.
The long-board was put up to the door opening, not forgetting that we're all working on a steep slope, as the officer was gently laid on to the board. He was secured to the board and then carried down the slope to the waiting paramedics and their trolley.
Then just a case of making up all the gear and returningto Normanshurst. Finally got home at about 04:40 and, knowing how long it takes me to get to sleep, I stayed up! Sad git…
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Other links…
EADT – Man bailed after police smash horror
BBC – Injured police still in hospital