March has been a quiet month for us (I know, I mentioned the Q word but we have been very Q for far too long). I think Lockdown has had an affect. And with that you just know that when your alerter next wakes up it’ll send your heart rate up a notch or three.
Even before Lockdown I had set up office at the bottom of the garden. Proper office not just the 8×6 garden shed with the lawn mower chucked outside to make some space.
You get the picture…
Actually cracking on with some work when my alerter springs into life, sending me clattering from behind my desk and bursting out of the door. A good head of steam built up as I charge along the garden path before negotiating the gate and off on the final 100m or so to the fire station.
Since the start of the pandemic we’ve used a new route into the station. You see, we share our station with the Ambulance Service and they get to access the front door which is then closest to the parts of the station they use. This does mean that whoever of our crew that’s first in, quite often that’s me, has to unlock the gate to the car park just before the hoards arrive. In my head the Countdown clock is heading towards the final few seconds as I fumble with the lock and swing the gate wide open. Phew! Made it with seconds to spare before the cars start piling in.
In the door, tally up as driver and then take a peak at the printer to see what’s occurring.
We’re off to a building fire at the Piggeries on Queen’s Highway in Camps Heath – a couple of miles from the fire station.
It’s two pumps to a building fire and not long after leaving the station we can see the pall of dark smoke rising skywards.
Camps Heath is right on the edge of town and is the start of open country, farmland and then marshes and the River Waveney. The roads get narrower until we hit the muddy, potholed track that is rather grandly called Queen’s Highway.
The nearest hydrant is around 12 lengths from the incident so we drop of two of the crew plus a number of lengths of 70 so they can make a start at securing a water supply.
By now we’ve heard the assistance message go in for Make Pumps three.
I continued up to the old piggery and dumped our 1800 litres of water into S36P3 from Lowestoft South.
As soon as the third pump arrived it was able to further supply the firefighting appliance and they headed back to the hydrant to start a water shuttle.
Two hosereels were used from a doorway before a BA team were committed into the building. Thankfully it had been a quick knockdown with our water arriving just in time.
And then there’s all the hose to make up – muddy and needing to be cleaned back at the station. Once we were all stowed we made our way to the hydrant to jostle for position with an ambulance and a few police cars, all crammed into the tight lanes.
Time for a more sedate drive as we returned to North Lowestoft Fire Station and the inevitable clean up…
What3Words location of incident: triathlon.curve.pricing