Month: March 2010

For the second time on Saturday my alerter summoned me to the fire station.

Bang on 4pm and I was jogging over to the station and taking one of the BA slots. The tip sheet just said "House" with the address in Edendale, off Sands Lane in Lowestoft.

Even as we entered Sands Lane smoke was visible in the distance – it looked like we'd got ourselves a working job.

As Cheesey pulled into Edendale we could see Blue Watch from Lowestoft South getting a hosereel run out and two guys getting started up in BA. It seems that the fire was in the lounge and this team was going to enter from the front of the property.

Mel and I were readying ourselves in BA with the aim of going round the back of the house and entering through the patio doors. Jason ran the second hosereel from Lowestoft South 01 through the garage and to the rear garden. From here he was able to hit the fire through the open patio door just before the BA team came in through the front.

By now both Mel and I were under air, had given our tallies to Mark Francis and were hurrying in Ballsy's footsteps to the back of the house. As we entered the lounge the first BA team where just dousing the last remnants of the fire.

Mel turned off the gas and electric before we headed upstairs to make sure all the windows were open to allow the house to ventilate.

And that was about it for us. We helped to clear some debris from the lounge but I think we all were thinking how lucky the occupants of the house had been to escape unscathed.
But it could so easily have been worse.

Have you thought about escape routes if you have a fire in your house? Think of different scenarios and how you would exit the building. Make sure the whole family know the plans and have a 'dry-run'. Test your smoke alarm at least once a week. Just three breaths of smoke can render you unconscious. Don't leave it to chance…

And if you still need convincing, take a look at some of these Government fire safety adverts.

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So the mission to silence my rumbling stomach commences…

Cold day so I brought something to bung in the microwave. My antiquated microwave was on its final few Countdown style seconds and I was just waiting for the 'bing' that would signal that my piping hot Carbonara was ready to eat when…

"Bugger! For f**k's sake! You're having a laugh!"

It's not the eagerly awaited 'bing' but that familiar sound that means the rumbling stomach will be rumbling a while longer yet!

Needless to say I wasn't best chuffed that my M&S (only the best) lunch would now be starting to congeal as I hot-foot it out of here. But duty calls and that's probably why the Government is now calling us on-call firefighters in the hope that people understand what we do instead of the traditional retained firefighters.

Get to the fire station and, before I even see the tip sheet I know what it's going to say, yes, Commercial Road and it's persons reported…

This time, as we pull into Commercial Road, smoke can be seen issuing from the old British Transport building.

I supply Lowestoft 01 with water and Mark and Jason head to the BAECO board to be the emergency team for the BA crew that have just entered this derelict and potentially dangerous building.

Again, all persons accounted for…

When the initial flurry of activity was over my stomach reminded me that it now required attention.

Back in the office, over an hour after leaving, and there was me cutting chunks out of my congealed Carbonara and chucking it down my neck.

Job done – stomach silenced…

I was concentrating pretty hard on something at work – I know this because my head was starting to hurt – when that small, vibrating, plastic thing attached to my hip threw a wobbly.

I think I nearly went through the ceiling! I'd been so deep in thought (hard to believe but true) that the sudden, shrill call of my alerter certainly had the desired effect! I was up and out of the door and heading for my car before my alerter had finished its fit. Bugger, where did I park the car? Brilliant! I'd had trouble parking anywhere near the office and instead was shoehorned into a tiny space not far from the football ground… Why don't cars have Oxygen masks that drop down when the driver slumps into his seat fighting fro breath?

Anyway, I pick up the drivers tally, and get sorted in the pump – radio on, MDT (mobile data terminal) on, handful of personal radio's. As we were made our way into town a message went back to Control that this incident was now 'persons reported'. This tends the focus the mind even more than it already was…

We pull into Commercial Road and head for the old, derelict British Transport police station on the opposite side to Aldi's.

Everyone is accounted for… It seems that someone has been using the building as a temporary home and had started a fire to keep warm. Could this be what happened in the old Aldi's just two days ago?

Back to Normanshurst and a standby as Green Watch get a shout to an RTC on the A12, south of Blythburgh. We finally left the station just before 1pm with my stomach rumbling and me on a mission to silence it…

We've gone through a really quiet spell since the beginning of the year. Sometimes a whole week has passed without us picking up a shout. And that's got to be good – everyone must be keeping themselves safe and not requiring our help…

But this week has seen us go from virtually nothing to seven shouts in just 5 days…

Just after 9pm on Monday the peace was shattered in the Carter household as my alerter sprang into life.

After opening the bay doors I saw from the tip sheet that we were off to the old Aldi store in Commercial Road. I was driving and, with a crew of six, we headed into Lowestoft.

As we pulled into Commercial Road we could see smoke coming from the roof and the wholetime crew (White watch) making efforts to gain entry to the blocked off car park. With the entrance now open I drove into the car park and round to the rear doors of the store. The BA board was already being set up and wearers starting to congregate close by.

We extended our hosereel so that the BA team would have 120m to play with once inside this sizeable building. A charged 45 was also readied by the entrance that the BA crews were about to use. Ladder 2 from Lowestoft South joined us, extending their own hosereel to allow another BA team to be committed to the building.
A hydrant was set into out on the road and run through to us with me keeping Ladder 2 topped up too.

While this was happening the job had been escalated to Make Pumps 4 and the Hydraulic Platform and its support pump had arrived from Great Yarmouth. Efforts were being made to gain entry to the store at the front but the security roller shutters were proving a tad problematic. However with cutters, spreaders, Remsaw and a host of other tools, access was gained.

Both our pump and Ladder 2 were then tasked with making up all our gear and hosereel and repositioning ourselves out on Commercial Road. It's about now that as the pump operator you look around for your crew to assist with making everything up. No one to be seen! They'd been given various other tasks and so it seemed very much like it was down to me then… Thankfully Gary and Dennis appeared and we were able to get things sorted quickly.

And that was the firefighting bit over… Once I'd got our pump out on to the road, run out the hosereel (extended again) I was told that it could now be made up (bugger!). All available crews were then in the store bringing down the ceiling to make sure there was no hotspots or likelihood of a fire starting again…

Little did any of us know that Commercial Road would be a regular destination for us in the coming week…