Month: July 2010

For the best part of a week we had a presence up at Wessex Foods, just in case things kicked off again.

My last stint up there was last Tuesday, with my alerter having gone off just before 11am.

So, with a crew of four, we positioned ourselves outside the now desolate reception and offices. We were relieving Leiston who had been dealing with some troublesome hotspots on the roof above the canteen.

We took a proactive view on these hotspots and Mel with Greg forced open the fire door into the first floor canteen. This obviously introduced more oxygen and the smoke got thicker, rising from the roof edge. With the help of crowbars they were able to peel back some of the roof and direct a hosereel onto the smouldering interior.

It now seemed as though more smoke was issuing from the front of the building. To combat this more effectively than what we could achieve, the Hydraulic Platform from Yarmouth was moved around to us with me supplying them with water. That’s the first time I’ve had to supply an HP as they usually get fed from their own support pump (which was still there). But as we were already set into the hydrant it was decided that we should do the pumping. It was now a juggling act between keeping enough water in our tank (not over-running the supply) and giving enough pressure to the HP crew some 50ft above us. With a bit of tweaking and cross-border co-operation we managed to get a good jet over the dilapidated roof.

The HP crew suddenly headed for the ground at a rapid rate of knots having found themselves breathing in Ammonia that had suddenly appeared around them.
A hasty conference with the refrigeration engineers ensued with one of them going up in the cage to try to identify the source of the leak.

And before you knew it, our reliefs, in the shape of Aldeburgh, turned up.

We then beat a hasty retreat to Lowestoft South Fire Station to diesel up and snatch a quick cup of tea… Just as the tea arrived the turnout alarm sounded – the first time I’ve heard it and boy, does it sound odd. It’s a cross between a ships siren, a cat with its head stuck in a door and a distressed cow!

White Watch took out Ladder 1 and we heard them book mobile to Camps Heath, back on the north side of the river and our patch. With the nod from Dennis I radioed Control and booked us available, just in case White Watch wanted our help. Now for my cup of tea. As I savoured the hot, sweet brew, Neil Henderson’s voice cut across the airwaves with, “Assistance message from Lowestoft 01, make pumps two, thick smoke seen from Bridge Road”. So before they’d even got halfway to the incident and on seeing the smoke, Neil had, quite rightly, decided to get us rolling too.

Back at Lowestoft South we jumped aboard our trusty steed and started to pull out of the yard, just waiting for the Fire Priority message to come from Control. And sure enough, within seconds Dennis was answering the Fire Priority and booking us mobile to the incident.

It was now about quarter past four and the traffic was already busy, starting with the six-way roundabout right outside Lowestoft South. The roundabout was negotiated fairly quickly and then we headed towards Oulton Broad through the thickening traffic. Cotmer Road, running down to the Flying Dutchman pub was solid and so it was all the way down the outside before cutting in at the traffic lights. Now the traffic was backed up over the railway bridge and so edging forward on the opposite side of the road I was able to see the way clear and head around the queue to the Victoria Road roundabout. A few quick shimmies and we were through Oulton Broad and into Hall Road and ever closer to the pall of black smoke over Camps Heath.

After slowly picking my way down a dirt track we pulled up behind White Watch to see a large metal tank with flames shooting out of every orifice… This had been used as a paint store and was now in the process of being cut up. Sparks plus fumes equals flames and black smoke.

Andy Jackson on Ladder 1 got foam to work through the hosereels and I supplied our full tank to ensure they had enough water to finish the job.

And now we get to go home, finally getting in the door at half five… Oh, but it’s Drill Night tonight so another two hours with the Fire Service cleaning the fire engine and making sure we’ve got all the kit we should have after what has been an eventful few days…

 

 

 

 

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View the first part of Fire at Wessex Foods, Lowestoft »

Our crew were relieved last night and were able to get off home at around 1am this morning…

And the feeling I have in my water from time to time proved right with the alerters going off just after 7am this morning. It didn’t take a genius to work out that we were back off to Wessex Foods as a relief crew ourselves.

So, in the early morning drizzle we made our way back to the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate and took over from the Framlingham pump, letting them wend their weary way home.

There were still areas of the fire that we couldn’t easily reach. No crews were going to be committed to the building due to the possibility of collapse. The best we could do was to position ground monitors to send jets of water into the interior of the cold stores. Every so often we would venture back to see the effect of the water or to shut the water off and reposition the monitor.

We were then tasked with setting up a water supply for the Turntable Ladder which was on its way up from Ipswich. This was two lines of 70mm hose from our pump on Tower Road, through a corn field and back into the rear of the factory yard.

And that was about it for us. White Watch from Lowestoft South relieved us at around 12.30, home, shower and now try to get on with some of my own work…
But there’s every chance that we’ll be called in again later today – oh joy!

A big thank you must go to the Salvation Army Emergency Response Unit who attended the incident last night to provide food and drinks to the fire crews. Staffed by volunteers, they do a fantastic job in providing sustenance to very hungry and thirsty firefighters.

Also thank you to Morrison’s in Lowestoft for taking over from the Salvation Army this morning and providing breakfasts, bacon rolls and hot drinks to the remaining crews.

 

 

 

 

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• The Full Monty – the hit musical at the Marina Theatre!
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There I was wondering what to do to avoid watching the World Cup Final when my alerter solved the problem for me!

Just before 6.30pm I was jogging across to the fire station, hoping we weren't off to Corton Cliffs again. Cheesey beat me in and as the appliance bay doors thudded open he called, 'It's Make Pumps 8." I seem to remember my reply was something like 'Oh for f**ks sake!"

As more of the crew arrived it was obvious there was something big kicking off in south Lowestoft as a huge plume of smoke was visible right across town. Sure enough, the shout was to Wessex Foods on Hadenham Road in the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate.

With a crew of six Cheesey was off and negotiating the increasingly heavy traffic through Oulton Broad and finally passed queues of traffic up Bloodmoor Road.

We were fourth pump in and were greeted by thick black smoke billowing from the factory roof. Cheesey was required to put messages back to Control including 'Make Pumps 12 and 2 aerial appliances required', so I took over as pump operator. Very quickly we were supplying two 70mm lines of hose to the South-East corner of the building – cooling a very large Nitrogen tank and the sides of the smoking metal skinned factory. It became obvious, quite quickly, that we would be over-running the water supply as most of the fire engines were being fed from the same water supply (just different hydrants on that same supply). I therefore had to regulate the flow of water to each of my deliveries to ensure neither was left without something to squirt at the fire.

With the arrival of the Command Support Vehicle (CSV) from Beccles, Cheesey was able to take over as pump operator while I had a few minutes to survey the scene.

The factory processes chickens and as such has a whole lot of nasties (from our point of view) to deal  with – top of the list being Ammonia with Nitrogen and many gas cylinders adding to the fun. On the Western side of the factory I had heard that gas cylinders had been removed from the dnager area while attempts were being made to stop the Ammonia from leaking. Hopefully the thick cloud of smoke rolling away to the South West had persuaded anyone in its path to shut all their windows and doors!

By now we had fire engines and specialist vehicles arriving from all parts of the county. Fire engines from Lowestoft, Beccles, Wrentham, Southwold, Leiston, Stradbroke, Eye, Elmswell (near Bury St Edmunds), plus the Turntable Ladder and support pump from Ipswich and the Operational Support Unit plus pump from Haverhill. And from Norfolk we had their Hydraulic Platform from Great Yarmouth (they'd actually been at their own shout in Holt before coming on to us) and pumps from Yarmouth, Gorleston and Harleston.

To get round the water problem Harleston were sent off to Pakefield Hall, just south of the Morrisons roundabout to 'set in' to their pond. I then found myself with about 10 other firefighters running hose back up the A12 towards the incident.

Over 100 firefighters were called to the fire last night – a huge chunk of Suffolk's resources.

And there was me worrying that we were off to Corton Cliffs! But I wasn't far wrong. While we were at the incident we heard Bungay get tipped out to the cliffs followed by Orwell coming all the way up the A12 to assist them!

I'll hopefully get a few pics on here later today plus any other updates…

*** Just added some pics taken from the incident.

 

 

 

 

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• The Full Monty – the hit musical at the Marina Theatre!
• Great value family breaks at holiday parks in the UK