Fire at Wessex Foods, Lowestoft – part 2

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.

Sponsored links:

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