Alerter blog

Month: November 2010

  • Electrical device designed to save children’s lives in house fires

    New Cambridge Start Up, Life Light Rescue, is set to launch ‘Life Light’, the biggest breakthrough in children’s fire safety since the smoke alarm.

    On average there is a house fire every 10 minutes in the UK. The fact is that in the event of fire children hide, they are usually found dead or alive, under the bed or in the wardrobe.
    For firefighters entering a burning building the priority is to find the child… find the child’s bedroom and you find the child. Every second counts.

    In dense smoke there is no way the fire fighters can know if the room is the parents' room, spare room, study, bathroom or even a cupboard. Every door must be opened and the space searched. The problem remains – which door is the child’s bedroom…?

    The life light device is mounted on the door frame of the child’s bedroom door and is triggered by the sound of a smoke alarm.  Once triggered it sends out an intense strobe light that penetrates the densest of smoke.

    Life Light has been hailed by Fire Chiefs and Industry Leaders as amazingly effective; Tom Carroll, past president of the UK Fire Chiefs Association and former Chief Fire Officer of Cambridgeshire stated: ‘It is to fire safety what cat’s eyes are to road safety’.

    Life Light reduces the time firefighters spend searching empty rooms by guiding them to where your child is most likely to be hiding… in their bedrooms.  Life Light also minimises  the risk to fire fighters, saving 3 to 5 minutes in an average house fire search and rescue situation.

    The Life Light was invented by founder Derek Wilson of Cambridge and has been almost 3 years in the development and patent process.

    Derek was advised by various dragons to licence his product but conventional retailing would have doubled the £23 purchase price to over £50. Derek himself, a father of 3 young children, felt that this product should be available to all and therefore chose the tougher route to market, direct online sales.

    Following this decision Derek took his business idea to Macintyre Hudson, 2 of their consultants liked it so much they chose to invest.

    Life Lights can only be purchased online direct from www.lifelightrescue.com. The unit price is £22.99 with 20 pence from each sale donated to charity (Children In Need and The Fire Fighters Charity).

    "This is a very interesting idea. One of the greatest challenges for firefighters is about rapidly locating and removing people from smoke filled buildings. Any device that will assist in this respect will be welcome in helping to address this challenge’”
    Andy Fry – Chief Fire Officer of Suffolk, Director of Public Protection, Social Inclusion & Diversity at Suffolk County Council.

    "Once crews enter a home which is on fire every second counts to save a life, and for fire fighters safety. Any device which can speed up the time taken to search for trapped people is vital."
    Craig McIntosh – Assistant Chief Fire Officer responsible for fire safety in West Yorkshire.

  • Flat fire – Commercial Road, Lowestoft

    Well that's the first shout we've had in daylight hours for what seems absolutely ages…

    I was at work, concentrating hard (as I do) when my alerter burst into life, sending me about a foot into the air!

    The traffic on the way to the fire station seemed to be going at a walking pace, with a line of cars stuck behind a frequently stopping bus.

    I was second in, picked up one of the BA slots and then quickly changed into fire gear. Close behind came Dennis, using Fire Service jargon, saying "It's going like a bastard". If you hadn't worked it out for yourself, this means 'there is a well developed fire'.

    Then Cheesey arrives giving us the same professional opinion of the fire.

    We're off to Commercial Road in Lowestoft to a fire in a first floor flat. Soon after getting mobile we hear an assistance message go in for 'Make Pumps 4, persons reported'. That last bit always tends to focus the mind, especially if you're a BA wearer.

    As we approached the railway station smoke was visible coming from the rear of the property and up over the roof from the front.

    We pulled up behind Lowestoft 01 and Mel and I made our way to the BA board. Gary and Rudi from Red Watch were already in the building attacking the fire with a hosereel.

    Mel and I started up and went into the building to assist team 1 in searching the property for any casualties, making our way up to the heavily smoke-logged second floor. We started opening windows to vent the property and could start to see a noticeable thinning of the smoke. We checked the second floor and were happy that no one was in there.

    By this time the fire was virtually out on the first floor and that was found to be clear too.

    And that was it for us. Out of the building, removed our sets, reported our findings to Rachael who was BAECO today. The BA board was set up in a rather unfortunate position – right outside the door to Lowestoft's only sex shop! And I didn't have my camera…

    Final inspections of the property were carried out, all the gear and hose made up and we were off back to the station to clean our BA sets and back to work.
    Which reminds me… I'm typing this when I should really get some jobs finished before the weekend.

  • Fire – Sunrise Inn, Corton Road, Lowestoft

    For the second time this week fire crews from Lowestoft, Beccles and Great Yarmouth have fought a blaze at the Sunrise Inn on Corton Road, Lowestoft.

    This morning our alerters rattled themselves silly at 0615 and I hot-footed it over to the fire station.

    When crews arrived at the scene they were met by a well involved fire and did well to contain it to the rear of the building. The incident was escalated to Make Pumps 4 plus the Hydraulic Platform and its support pump from Great Yarmouth.

    The fire was initially fought from outside the building with crews entering once the blaze was under control. The affected rooms were cleared of debris with parts of the roof removed also.

    And, as asbestos was found and exposed in the building we all have to be 'decontaminated'. Wash down fire kit at the incident, remove it and bag it for specialist cleaning. Then off to Lowestoft South to charge our BA cylinders, fill up with diesel and get some spare fire kit.

    Finally back to Normanshurst and home for midday and absolutely no enthusiasm for going into work now…

  • Fire – Rants Score, Lowestoft

    Firstly, an apology for the complete lack of posts on here… Life has been so hectic lately and the Fire Service has been quite quiet. Add the two together and you get nothing posted!

    As seems to be the norm these days, I'd nodded off on the sofa last evening. And with me well and truly in the Land of Nod I must have leapt about five feet in the air when my alerter went off!

    There I was careering around the house finding socks, shoes, alerter (that's the thing making all the noise and flashing like a set of demonic disco lights), mobile, cuddly toy, fondue set – try to focus my eyes a bit better… drop the cuddly toy and fondue set and make it to the front door. Could I get the key in the door to lock it? Could I f**k! Really must get these eyes open! Right, door locked and now the run (make that a slow jog) across the main road to the fire station. Luckily I made it across the road in one piece and got the station opened up before the rush and my tally up as driver.

    Tell myself that, as I'm driving, those bloody eyes really need to be wider than slits!

    Right, where are we going? Grab the tip sheet – fire in a flat at Rants Score, in the town centre. It's us and Lowestoft 01 going.

    Soon the place is swarming with bodies and we're out on to Normanston Drive. Within a couple of minutes we pull up at the top of Rants Score to see a BA crew committing and smoke coming from the open door and first floor windows.

    Gary and Jason don their BA sets and make their way to the BAECO board to form the Emergency Team

    Meanwhile I run out a length of 70 to Lowestoft 01 to keep them topped up while Shambles sets into a nearby hydrant to feed me. Next its deploy the two flaked lengths of 45 and branch we keep in the locker bay and charge this with water – a quick way to get a covering jet out and ready.

    And as second pump in we also tend to get tasked with putting back messages to Control. First message for me was an assistance message of Make Pumps 3 and that an aerial appliance was required (the hydraulic platform (HP) from Great Yarmouth plus its support pump). Requesting the HP was precautionary as the building was four storeys and the HP would be invaluable if the fire broke through to the roof.

    I also had to request the attendance of the Police as the fire was of a suspicious origin - multiple seats of fire don't usually happen by accident…

    Thankfully the fire was extinguished quickly with hotspots being checked for with the Thermal Image Camera.

    I got in just before midnight and off to bed. Why is it that two hours before I just couldn't wake up and now, when it's time for shut eye, I'm wide awake?