Alerter blog

Author: charley-farley-737

  • Fire on South Lowestoft Industrial Estate

    12655951_10153860188240629_11490527_oI know! It's been far too long since I posted anything on here about shouts.

    No excuses really – work, life and couldn't be arsed all come into play.

    So let's make amends now…

    I was sitting chatting to the present Mrs. C, waiting the arrival of a health care professional to help us with Karen's ongoing care requirements. I won't bore you with the details suffice to say, if you don't already know, that Mrs. C broke her neck 27 years ago, uses a wheelchair to get about but leads a busy life that makes me knackered trying to keep up.

    Enough of the back story.

    So, with two minutes to go before the arrival of our 'guest' my little black number throws a wobbly and has me apologising profusely to The Boss before I head out the door and hot-foot it across to North Lowestoft Fire Station.

    Archie, who's part of the South Lowestoft On Call crew is crossing the road with all his kit. To help keep pumps on the run, Archie has one of our alerters as his building work sees him working even closer to the fire station than me.

    Just as we get in the front door the turn out alarm starts, changing what was obviously a standby into a turn out.

    The incident is on Pinbush Road on the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate and it's now Make Pumps 3.

    I'm driving and, as usual, it's an interesting drive through Oulton Broad negotiating the traffic and the drivers that seem blissfully unaware of the fourteen ton truck lit up like a Christmas tree and emitting a plethora of load noises – bull horn included. Such fun!

    We pull up behind the two South Lowestoft pumps and immediately run hose from us to their second pump to supplement the water supply. They're using loads of water as the fire is well developed involving fuelled vehicles in a building and gas cylinders too. So hosereels, 45's and ground monitors are sending gallons upon gallons of water onto the fire.

    Archie and I take our pump away to fill up at a hydrant that's not on the same main as that already being used. So, It's A Knockout style we rock up at a hydrant and set to to get the water into the tank as quick as possible and then back to the fire ground.

    12669351_10153860187975629_998267779_oWith plenty of hard work from the crews the fire was brought under control quickly.

    It's interesting to note that today's fire may well reflect how things will be in Lowestoft if the proposed cuts to frontline fire engines goes ahead. At the time of the shout South Lowestoft were only able to crew one of their two pumps – that's why we were sent on the Make Pumps 3. But after the cuts, which I feel are inevitable, this is how it will be – only three fire engines in Lowestoft, not four.

    Fire calls may well have dropped but the unique geography of Lowestoft, the large housing developments that are underway or planned plus the new wind farm business mean we're growing.

    These cuts mean there's no spare capacity.

    A person reported house fire gets three fire engines. That'll be all the fire engines in Lowestoft after the cuts. There'll be nothing left over for any incident – bin fire, RTC, whatever.

    Sorry, I'm rambling. Told you it'd had been far too long since I posted anything. Think I just made up for that!

  • Lowestoft meeting to discuss cuts to Fire Service budget in Suffolk

    SFRS-logoAround 80 people attended the public meeting on 1st February where the Chief Fire Officer, Mark Hardingham and Cllr Matthew Hicks sort to explain and 'sell' the proposed cuts to frontline fire engines and firefighters.

    The meeting, held at the swanky new council offices at Riverside, Lowestoft was well stage-managed and largely deflected any major spats for the the Fire Service or County Council.

    We sat on tables of 8, each with an officer present to answer general questions – our table was fortunate to have local Group Commander, John Tiffen.

    I have to say I've never seen so many officers in one place unless you count Endeavour House…

    The Chief gave a short presentation to explain the reduction and now plateau-ing of fires and RTC's and where the proposed cuts will be. We then, on each table discussed the proposals with the officer and numerous Lowestoft firefighters present able to answer questions from members of the public. Hopefully the answers given by the firefighters were not only helpful but from the heart, backed up by many years of operational experience.

    Each table then had a visit from the Chief for 10 minutes to answer questions followed soon after by Cllr Hicks for his allotted 10 minutes.

    I found the Chief to be open and honest and found that Cllr Hicks was the archetypal politician – smooth-talking and able to deflect questions with the ease of an accomplished batsman.

    My final point to Cllr Hicks went something like this:

    Me: Call me cynical but with the decision on these proposals being taken by the Cabinet whose nine members are all Conservative, these cuts are a done deal.

    Cllr Hicks: No, we'll be taking into consideration all the feedback given by people answering the consultation questionnaire.

    Me [under my breath]: Bollocks!

    My own view is that the proposals have been drafted with a little wriggle room. And I think it will be to not cut three fire engines in Ipswich but lose two instead.

    Time will tell…

    But I can promise you this.

    The thin red line will get thinner. Response times to all incidents will take longer – we're missing our self-imposed targets already, before the cuts.

    And when your house is on fire and you need rescuing – EVERY SECOND COUNTS!

  • The Future of the Fire Service…

    Yesterday's serious fire in Sudbury, Suffolk highlighted something we all take for granted…

    Dial 999, ask for the Fire Service and within minutes you'll have fire engines arriving from all directions.

    Last night that worked just fine. 

    Suffolk crews assisted by those from Essex worked hard to contain the fire, rescue people and stopped the fire escalating to more properties.

    But will this be the case when hard hitting budget cuts are forced upon our already hard-pressed fire and rescue services?

    Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service is already the cheapest to run fire service in the UK when based on the population it serves. Yet very soon it will have to save another £1 million. That's £1 million from a service that has done all it can to save money without affecting frontline services. That's £1 million from a budget of just £22 million. And it's likely there'll be further cuts after that.

    A public consultation has taken place to see what the people and businesses of Suffolk want from their fire service. I imagine the answer is a simple one. When they dial 999 and ask for 'Fire' they want a big red truck with them as soon as is humanly possible.

    The cuts that are likely, mirrored in neighbouring Norfolk, could mean fewer fire engines, fewer fire stations and fewer firefighters.

    There could be fewer wholetime firefighters and, because of station closures, fewer retained firefighters.

    It's worth bearing in mind that Sudbury currently has two fire engines, both crewed entirely by retained firefighters like myself. All with normal day jobs that they leave when their alerters (pagers) go off.

    There are rumours that Sudbury could lose one of its fire engines, meaning the next nearest pump having to come in from Long Melford, Clare or even further afield.

    And having seen how quickly the fire spread at the Sudbury job, every second counts. Minutes can mean the difference between saving a building or not. Minutes can also mean the difference between saving a life or not… A sobering thought.

    In recent years we've seen how badly the Ambulance Service has been ravaged. Waiting times soared and staff morale nose-dived. Like it or not, is this what's going to happen to the fire service? 

    Is it going to have to get worse before it can get better?

    All of us who work within the fire service want to do the very best we can and dedicate large parts of our lives to serving our local communities. But it is getting harder. The strain on retained firefighters continues to grow. Suffolk relies heavily on its retained firefighters – the men and women that live in towns like Sudbury – the men and women who will do anything to protect their town and ensure the safety of their friends and neighbours.

    This isn't a dig at Suffolk Fire and Rescue. They are between a rock and a hard place. They have to save money. It's not an easy job to decide where those savings will be made.

    And when we witness the devastation that fire can bring we all, quite rightly, want the very best the Fire Service can offer…

    Related articles
    Firefighters bid farewell to Al Soards
    Lowestoft Firefighters Charity Car Wash raises £586

  • Firefighters rescue horse from mud at Blundeston, Lowestoft

    Horse-rescue-29Mar14-02Edging slowly down Cotmer Road in the lunchtime traffic towards The Flying Dutchman and our Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) does its little doorbell ring. Now our MDT is slow at the best of times and we thought it was just updating our status after leaving Lowestoft South Fire Station a few minutes back.

    After a few more seconds and a couple of prods of the screen, Gary announced, “We’ve got a shout!”

    I let the traffic in front move off as we waited to see to where and what we were now going to be heading to.

    “Horse in mud, Flixton Road, Blundeston”, said Gary…

    That’s good – it’s in the direction we’re travelling but right through a very busy Oulton Broad.

    Horse-rescue-29Mar14-03Reach forward press the 999 button to get all the blue lights on followed by the 2 C/O button to changeover from the old two tones to the 3 different ‘yelps & wails’ that we now have.

    The queue of traffic has already seen us light up like a giant Christmas tree and has started to edge to the side of the road to give me some room. Down the outside of the traffic to The Flying Dutchman with the odd blast on the bull horn to warn the traffic at the lights.

    Once round the corner we’re confronted with nose to tail traffic over the rail bridge… So slowly creeping by them until we near the top and oncoming traffic sees us, stops, and lets us through. Then some weaving in and out and we make it through Oulton Broad and out along Gorleston Road towards Blundeston.

    Before we reach the incident I stop using the the sirens and then turn off the lights – hopefully this won’t then spook the horse.

    Over the radio we hear that the Water Rescue Team and the Unimog have mobilised from Lowestoft South and are following on behind us.

    I park our pump out of the way so that the Unimog and the Water Rescue Team have plenty of room to set up. Driving the support pump means staying with the vehicles, fetching and carrying and putting back messages to Combined Control.

    Horse-rescue-29Mar14-01The guys got kitted in the dry suits while lines, spades and a length of 70mm hose were traipsed across the muddy field to where the horse was up to its neck in thick, glutinous mud.

    Around an hour passed as the crews worked to free the horse – digging around its legs and using the length of 70 around its backside to pull it out.

    And, seemingly none the worse for wear, the mare was reunited with her foal and all was well with the world…

    We then provided water through a hosereel to wash down the crews and get mud and other stuff (!?) off.

    Job done – back to the station for tea and medals… 

    Related articles
    Lowestoft Firefighters Charity Car Wash raises £586

  • Lowestoft Firefighters Charity Car Wash raises £586

    Car-wash-01On a bright Saturday morning Lowestoft South Fire Station was transformed into a drive through car wash to raise much-needed funds for The Fire Fighters Charity.

    Cars were queueing, the hoses were spraying, the suds were flying and the buffers were buffing the freshly washed cars with energetic enthusiasm…

    As always, we're chuffed to bits that the people of Lowestoft come out to support their local firefighters. 

    Welephant made an appearance, enticing motorists to come and have their car washed. Thankfully Welephant didn't get run over as he made numerous trips to collect money from the passing drivers… I took over as I wasn't too happy that a young elephant would be confident crossing the road by himself!

    Car-wash-02I also took the opportunity to show some of our younger visitors around our fire engine. It's great to see the big smiles as they clamber aboard 'Jupiter' and ask for the umpteenth time if my name is Sam…

    With some of our crew having to get away we left Lowestoft South just after midday for a leisurely drive back to North Lowestoft. But things don't always go according to plan.

    Edging slowly down Cotmer Road in the lunchtime traffic towards The Flying Dutchman and our Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) does its little doorbell ring. Now our MDT is slow at the best of times and we thought it was just updating our status after leaving Lowestoft South a few minutes back.

    After a few more seconds and a couple of prods of the screen, Gary announced, "We've got a shout!"

    I let the traffic in front move off as we waited to see to where and what we were now going to be heading to.

    "Horse in mud, Flixton Road, Blundeston", said Gary…

    Coming up > Firefighters rescue horse from deep mud in Blundeston, Lowestoft

  • Lowestoft firefighter blog resumes…

    I know, I know! It's been absolutely ages since I last wrote a blog post. In fact it's a full 18 months – I could have sworn it was just a few months.

    The last blog I wrote was about the funeral of Al Soards, a much-loved and much-missed firefighter colleague.

    Running my own businesses, a shortage of bloggable shouts and life in general has meant that posts here have taken a back seat.

    Well, with a few shouts recently, I thought it was high-time to resume my firefighters blog…

    Coming up…

     

  • Firefighters bid farewell to Al Soards

    Just over three weeks ago we were all stunned and totally shocked to hear of the tragic and very untimely death of Firefighter Alan Soards.

    Al had joined Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service as a wholetime firefighter back in 2001 – the year before I joined as a retained firefighter. Like me, Al was stationed at Normanshurst Fire Station in Lowestoft and our paths crossed many times in training and on shouts. 

    He was a committed professional and would always put himself forward to be involved with anything to do with the Fire Service. Al joined the Marine Incident Response Group, ready to fight fires on ships out at sea. He joined the retained section at Normanshurst and got himself known and well-liked by all of our crew.

    We teamed up to present Learn and Live, a hard-hitting road safety campaign targetting high school and college students. Al was central to delivering Learn and Live to literally thousands of young people. Reliving his own story of how he lost friends in an RTC made the message all the more powerful for these vulnerable and impressionable youngsters.

    And so we found ourselves amongst hundreds of mourners at St. Andrews Church in Gorleston to celebrate and give thanks for Al's life and what he'd meant to all of us.

    Firefighters and officers from across Suffolk lined the long sloping pathway to the entrance to St. Andrews Church. The chill northerly wind whipped around the churchyard making eyes stream and noses run. Eyes strained towards Lowestoft to get the first glimpse of the cortege. Time stood still. Al was running late – nothing new there…

    And there it was. The vintage TL from Essex stopped a few hundred yards away for the transfer of the coffin from the hearse. The pall bearers mounted the side of the TL and Dale Wallace (a former colleague of Al's) played the bagpipes and led the cortege as it finished its journey to the church.

    Over 200 firefighters were called to attention, heads bowed, ready for the procession to make its way through our ranks and into the church.

    Members of Al's White Watch acted as pallbearers and also carried Al's helmet. And Al's dog, Tyson, was given pride of place in the procession too, proudly sporting a specially made SFRS coat.

    The funeral service was both moving and, at times, light-hearted. Moving as we heard of how well-respected and loved Al was, how he would always help anyone and how he would be missed by his family and by that other family – everyone at Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. Light-hearted as tales of Al's history of breaking things were recounted – as I'm sure they will be for many years to come.

    In front of us we had a constant reminder of that 'other family' as standard bearers from all the other UK fire and rescue services filled each side of the church.

    The most moving part of the service was the eulogy from Neil Henderson, Al's Watch Commander. Neil's words and recollections summed up Al to a 'T', were heartfelt and so easy to identify with for all the firefighters present.

    And then it was over. The firefighters filed out of the church to once again line the path and bid Al farewell.

    Those of us who served with Al in Lowestoft were invited to the Crematorium for the commital. Over forty firefighters formed up at attention as the cortege arrived.

    After the short service we joined Al's family, friends and colleagues at the Wherry Hotel in Oulton Broad for the wake – a chance for everyone to chat and reminisce about Al and to catch up with old friends from across the Service and beyond.

    Al Soards – gone but most definitely not forgotten…

     

  • Single vehicle RTC, Denmark Road, Lowestoft

    It's always a shock to the system when my little vibrating sidekick springs into life in the wee small hours… And at precisely 0333 this morning my heart rate shot through the roof as I tumbled out of bed in response to my alerter giving it the big 'un.

    Bleary-eyed I jogged over to the fire station and, being first in, took the drivers slot and grabbed the tip sheet to see where and what we were off to.

    With sleep still clearing I registered that we had a single vehicle RTC on Denmark Road, near the railway station and barely a mile away and that the car was on its roof with persons trapped. That certainly focusses the mind!

    This was my first shout in our new pump as driver – not the time of day I'd have chosen to operate this state-of-the-art piece of kit. Daytime and me more fully awake would have been much better! Beggars, choosers and all that…

    Out of the station and away and my chance to experience the acceleration of these new pumps – it's impressive! We heard the watch book in attendance and we were there just minutes later.

    The car was actually on its wheels and sitting just inside the railway station car park. It had collided heavily with a lamppost on its nearside and then completely wiped out a section of sturdy metal railings before coming to rest. The section of dislodged railings ended up about 20 metres away from the car which together with the precarious position of the lamppost, suggested the car had been travelling at slightly (!*?) above the 30mph speed limit.

    There was just the driver to deal with and paramedics were already taking care of him. Luckily there was no front seat passenger. If there had of been they would have taken the full impact of where the nearside door impacted with the lamppost…

    All three fire crews got to work stabilising the car, setting up lighting, cutting gear and all the other bits of kit needed to extricate the casualty. Glass was managed, the drivers door was opened out to create an exit if needed in a hurry and then the roof was cut off. Long board in and the driver was out and on his way to hospital.

    Job done. Time to pack away all the equipment and head off home. Too late to crawl back into bed. Instead it's a cuppa and a Digestive to dunk…

     

  • Crazy turnout at German fire station – great video…

    This video was shot back in 1993 in a small German town.

    There's some sort of civic event happening in the centre when the sirens go and the local firefighters get a shout.

    I gave up counting how many crew turned in, running from all directions.

    Watch out for the guy in firekit who runs after one of the appliances and never quite catches it!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzPa2O8kJNs&feature=g-vrec

  • RTC on A12 near Pontins, Lowestoft

    I suppose getting a shout is an ideal excuse to leave the grass-cutting half finished…

    So when my little black number starting vibrating in my pocket mid cut I was more than happy to abandon the gardening till later.

    By the time I’d replaced shorts with jeans and hot footed across to the fire station, Dennis was already in and called out that we were off to an RTC, persons trapped at Kessingland.

    IMG_0097I slapped my tally into the drivers position and got all my fire kit stowed on the pump. Handheld radios onboard, tip sheet in hand, main scheme radio switched on, fire up the engine, blues on and wait as the crew start tumbling in through the front door.

    With five onboard I turned out onto Normanston Drive and within a few hundred metres we encountered the traffic backed up all the way from the railway line gates in Oulton Broad. Nothing for it but to proceed down the outside of the queue right the way to the line gates which were shut waiting for theNorwich bound train. So there we were, at the mercy of the trains, waiting for the barriers to raise. And sitting across the other side of the tracks was John, one of our crew, who hadn’t been able to beat the line gates and make it to the station for the turnout.

    Once we cleared that little obstacle we made good progress through the afternoon traffic, heading out of town past Lowestoft South Fire Station. 

    It wasn’t long before we hit the tailback from the incident. We passed through the Police cordon and headed up to the other emergency vehicles.

    Once I’d got my fire kit on I joined our crew as the the worst affected vehicle was being winched from a ditch at the side of the road. In the middle of this I got a call from Dennis on the handheld radio to make my way back to him ASAP. We’d been tasked with a new job…

    As we’d arrived at the incident we had passed a car pulled up on the verge that had got just minor damage. It now seemed like we may need to take the roof off to enable the extraction of the female passenger, who was medically trapped.

    I reversed the pump closer to this car and started to set up an equipment dump – combi tool, hydraulic hose, generator, sharp protectors, toolkit and more.

    IMG_0096The Air Ambulance had by now landed in a nearby garden. The doctor and paramedic had examined the male driver of the car from the ditch and were now coming over to check our female passenger. 

    To save cutting the roof from the car the doctor was happy for us to remove all the rear seats from the car and use a long board to remove the passenger. This was much quicker than having to remove the roof…

    Our casualty was now in the car of the Ambulance Service and our job was done. Time to pack everything away, watch the Air Ambulance leave the scene with one casualty aboard and then a hot debrief for the fire crews.

    With the time now approaching 5pm traffic was stacked up coming out of Lowestoft as drivers tried to work out the best way to get around the RTC scene. And we had to do likewise and return through Lowestoft at a much more sedate pace that that at we came…