Author: charley-farley-737

I was concentrating pretty hard on something at work – I know this because my head was starting to hurt – when that small, vibrating, plastic thing attached to my hip threw a wobbly.

I think I nearly went through the ceiling! I'd been so deep in thought (hard to believe but true) that the sudden, shrill call of my alerter certainly had the desired effect! I was up and out of the door and heading for my car before my alerter had finished its fit. Bugger, where did I park the car? Brilliant! I'd had trouble parking anywhere near the office and instead was shoehorned into a tiny space not far from the football ground… Why don't cars have Oxygen masks that drop down when the driver slumps into his seat fighting fro breath?

Anyway, I pick up the drivers tally, and get sorted in the pump – radio on, MDT (mobile data terminal) on, handful of personal radio's. As we were made our way into town a message went back to Control that this incident was now 'persons reported'. This tends the focus the mind even more than it already was…

We pull into Commercial Road and head for the old, derelict British Transport police station on the opposite side to Aldi's.

Everyone is accounted for… It seems that someone has been using the building as a temporary home and had started a fire to keep warm. Could this be what happened in the old Aldi's just two days ago?

Back to Normanshurst and a standby as Green Watch get a shout to an RTC on the A12, south of Blythburgh. We finally left the station just before 1pm with my stomach rumbling and me on a mission to silence it…

We've gone through a really quiet spell since the beginning of the year. Sometimes a whole week has passed without us picking up a shout. And that's got to be good – everyone must be keeping themselves safe and not requiring our help…

But this week has seen us go from virtually nothing to seven shouts in just 5 days…

Just after 9pm on Monday the peace was shattered in the Carter household as my alerter sprang into life.

After opening the bay doors I saw from the tip sheet that we were off to the old Aldi store in Commercial Road. I was driving and, with a crew of six, we headed into Lowestoft.

As we pulled into Commercial Road we could see smoke coming from the roof and the wholetime crew (White watch) making efforts to gain entry to the blocked off car park. With the entrance now open I drove into the car park and round to the rear doors of the store. The BA board was already being set up and wearers starting to congregate close by.

We extended our hosereel so that the BA team would have 120m to play with once inside this sizeable building. A charged 45 was also readied by the entrance that the BA crews were about to use. Ladder 2 from Lowestoft South joined us, extending their own hosereel to allow another BA team to be committed to the building.
A hydrant was set into out on the road and run through to us with me keeping Ladder 2 topped up too.

While this was happening the job had been escalated to Make Pumps 4 and the Hydraulic Platform and its support pump had arrived from Great Yarmouth. Efforts were being made to gain entry to the store at the front but the security roller shutters were proving a tad problematic. However with cutters, spreaders, Remsaw and a host of other tools, access was gained.

Both our pump and Ladder 2 were then tasked with making up all our gear and hosereel and repositioning ourselves out on Commercial Road. It's about now that as the pump operator you look around for your crew to assist with making everything up. No one to be seen! They'd been given various other tasks and so it seemed very much like it was down to me then… Thankfully Gary and Dennis appeared and we were able to get things sorted quickly.

And that was the firefighting bit over… Once I'd got our pump out on to the road, run out the hosereel (extended again) I was told that it could now be made up (bugger!). All available crews were then in the store bringing down the ceiling to make sure there was no hotspots or likelihood of a fire starting again…

Little did any of us know that Commercial Road would be a regular destination for us in the coming week…

For once my timing was just right. I'd just finished my tea when my alerter started to throw a fit for the second time today.

Head for the front door with coat on, alerter in hand, mobile in pocket and shoes on at the door… Bugger no shoes at the front door! Where did I leave them? It would have been so much quicker just to get another pair but for some reason my brain only wanted me to find the elusive pair! Found them… Only wasted 10 seconds. Now out of the door.

Cheesey negotiated the early evening traffic and we were soon outside the property with the Roman Candle for a chimney. In seven years as a retained firefighter this is only my second chimney fire. It's not because we don't have chimney fires it's just that they are one pump shouts so it's normally the wholetime watch that picks these up. But Green Watch must have been otherwise engaged so we had the honours for this one.

A salvage sheet protected the lounge floor while we fed the chimey rods upwards and Jason did sterling work on the stirrup pump. Thankfully the fire was out pretty swiftly and we were able to get all our gear out without making any real mess in the property.

Hose all the gear down and then back to Normanshurst.

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It's Monday and I'd only made it to lunchtime before my little grey cells had started to fry… The day job is certainly using its fair share of brain cells and today called for a change of tactics.

The plan was to go home, go out for a run and then settle down at home making a fresh start on my work.

I'd just got into the car when my alerter effectively drowned out Phil Collins. Not sure what he was doing in my car but I couldn't hear a word other than 'I can feel it coming in the air…' Hmm…

I was second in at the fire station and did my best not to mow down the recruits busying themselves in the drill yard.

Two pump shout to 'Smoke from flat, Stanley Street, Lowestoft'. I joked that it would probably be the smoke house that's at the end of Stanley Street and often the source of a number of 'false alarm, good intents' for us.

I was driving and we headed into town before negotiating our way into Stanley Street, arriving shortly after Green Watch on Lowestoft 01. Not the smoke house but a terraced house with plenty of smoke issuing from the rear.

I had just run a length of 70 so that I could supply water to the other pump when I was told to reposition the pump in Wollaston Road so that we could attack the fire from the back of the property.

Once I'd reversed into position we got two hosereels off and a covering jet. Two BA teams entered via the back door and immediately faced the seat of the fire in the kitchen. This was quickly brought under control and then windows were opened to ventilate the house.

We cleared some of the debris from out of the kitchen then washed and made up our gear before heading back to Normanshurst.

I didn't get my run in. I told myself that running out two hosereels, a 45 and two lengths of 70 from the hydrant must be equal to a couple of circuits of the park… Who am I kidding?

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All I can assume is that the good folk of Lowestoft have made a collective New Years resolution to be safe in everything they do. Why? Well with only six shouts in by the 18th that's well below average.

And you just know that when that little black thing shakes itself to bits and wakes the dead, you'll nearly croak with surprise.

That's what happened late on Monday afternoon. I was just locking the door to my office, trying to balance all sorts of things when my alerter did it usual pace-maker stopping trick. Luckily, and because I'm writing this, the surprise didn't actually make me croak! 

Run to the car, pull out into the early rush-hour traffic and what seems an all too leisurely drive to the fire station behind someone doing barely 20mph. You know they haven't made it out of 2nd gear…

I'm second in and pick up the drivers tally and learn we're off to Blundeston, a village just to the north of Lowestoft, famous for its connections to Charles Dickens and its prison!

As we pull off the main road and head towards Blundeston we can see a pall of smoke rising lazily above the village – so it's a job…

I pull up behind White Watch on Lowestoft South 01 and run a length of 70 to them so that they can top up from our 1800 litres (400 gallons). Mel and Shambles don BA and approach the workshop from the opposite side to the BA crew from White.

It seems that the fire was in a workshop attached to the rear of a bungalow. The blaze totally destroyed the workshop and its contents but was stopped before it could take hold of the bungalow.

We lit the pumps up like Christmas trees because there's is little if any street lighting, trying to throw as much light as possible on the incident. Portable lighting was set up at the rear of the bungalow to enable everyone to see what was happening. Early on we were warned that they may be asbestos present so dust masks were worn and the fire kit of the BA wearers was backed ready to go off for specialist cleaning and/or to be destroyed.

And with the fire extinguished and all the gear stowed we headed back into Lowestoft stopping off to get fuel at Tesco's. While filling up our gallant crew tried helping a damsel in distress who couldn't start her car but were singularly unsuccessful.

Back to Normanshurst, top up the water, wash the pump and finally back home two hours after I'd planned to be there…

I'm sure I could get a job as a headline writer for The Sun or some other top quality newspaper. The cunning thinking behind today's headline will be revealed shortly…

Friday night was my first night in of the week and I had to try really hard not to spend most of it asleep on the sofa. I had just slipped into my Winnie the Pooh jim-jams and found my favourite teddy when my little friend (my alerter not the teddy) shattered the peace and had me scurrying for the door.

I slipped and slid my way over to the fire station as there seemed to be quite a bit of ice scattered about.

I took the drivers position and saw that we were headed into Oulton Broad and a flat fire in Bridge Road.

As we pulled up in Bridge Road I could see plenty of smoke issuing from the roof of the two storey building and White Watch busying themselves with BA, hosereel and ladders. Two of our crew headed to BA Entry Control with their sets, initially as an emergency team but then to carrying out firefighting and searching within the premises.
I ran out a length of 70 from our pump to Ladder 1, ready to supplement their water supply. However, they'd located a hydrant withing one length of the pump and were already setting into this.

We were now attracting an audience of Friday night revellers, some of whom must have had enough alcohol that it was acting like anti-freeze for them. It was bitterly cold and snow flurries just added to the bleak mid-winter feel!

Being driver of the second pump inevitably sees you become the control point and therefore responsible for putting all messages back to Control. The informative message started to roll in and I relayed these to Control. I also had a couple of Assistance Messages, one of which was to Make Pumps 6. Just to explain – an Assistance Message is precisely that. It takes priority on the main scheme radio and it is the method by which the Officer in Charge can summon extra resources whether that's pumps, aerial appliances, specials – whatever's needed.

As soon as we get four pumps at a job we also get the attendance of the Command Support Vehicle from Beccles (BS0G). Once they'd set themselves up and were ready to go I passed over to them all the messages and times that I had sent to Control. My job as control point was now finished. What's next?

Dennis asked me if I'd go into the wine bar that's right opposite the affected property and see if I could rustle up some hot drinks for the crews. And here's where the headline comes from (told you I'd get there) – the wine bar is the Red Herring. Well I thought the headline was good but perhaps that's because I'm suffering from sleep deprevation!

So picture firefighter (me) heading into a wine bar that's got quite a few customers in and the sort of reaction you might get from the ladies. I'm easily embarrassed but things got worse when one of the young ladies thought I was a strip-o-gram! Luckily they didn't take matters into their own hands because it was so bloody cold I don't think I would have done myself justice…
Anyway, I made it to the bar and was able to ask for refreshments which they were more than willing to help out with. I'm not sure how many teas, coffees plus the odd hot chocolate that they made but it was most welcome. So a big, big thank you to all at the Red Herring for their friendliness and hospitality.

So I've now been the control point and the tea boy – what's next?

Just as I was trying to blend into the background and find somewhere warm to thaw out I was told to get a BA set and check for hot-spots in the roof space. So me and Shambles got ourselves kitted out in BA and headed into the dripping, ramshackle interior of the flat. Everything was cooling down nicely with nothing visible to us that looked like it would cause any further trouble.

About half an hour later the Stop message went in and we were anxious to head back to Normanshurst and start to warm up. Eventually we got the nod and all piled into the pump with heating on full blast for the short drive back to Normanshurst.

So with a lack of sleep and a Chinese takeaway it looks like I'll be having a hot date with the sofa tonight…

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I was quite looking forward to an evening in last night. After four nights out on the trot, the thought of slobbing out in front of the box seemed most appealing.

So, having tweeted for the last time, I was about to head for my hot date with the sofa when my little friend let loose and had me heading for the door instead.

Mel was already opening up the station, doing a fine impression of a caretaker, having been literally driving past the fire station when the alerters went off.

I was driving and we were being tipped out to reports of a fire in a tumble drier at an address in Seago Street. With a crew of six and Dennis in charge I pulled out on to Normanston Drive and set course for Seago Street, barely a mile away.

As we entered from the top of the road we could see Ladder 1 from Lowestoft South approaching from the bottom end. We met in the middle outside the affected property. Initially it didn't look like much was happening, then came the shout, "It's a job!".
Red Watch had already got two of their crew starting up in BA and Mel and Cheesey from our pump got ready to follow suit.

I ran back to our pump and brought the BA Entry Control board over for Shambles who was taking on the BAECO role. Then back to the pump to move it forward a few feet and then run a length of 70 from us to Ladder 1 (LS01), ready to supply them with water if they started to eat into their 1800 litres.

By now, both BA teams had been committed into the house, each with a hosereel jet. A 45 covering jet had already been placed just outside the front gate.

And then one of the BA wearers appeared at my side holding a grubby, bedraggled cat that was fighting for breath. With the cat laid on the pavement I rushed to get the first aid kit off the pump. Now I've seen this done on TV but now was my chance to administer Oxygen therapy to an animal. I soon had the mask held over the cats face, hoping that it was now getting a good dose of Oxygen. Stroking the cat seemed to calm it down and gradually its breathing got easier and I was able to remove the mask. It opened its eyes and slowly moved its head to take in the scene around it. Then it looked me straight in the eye and let out a plaintive meow…

While this was happening outside the BA teams had extinguished the fire which had spread from the tumble drier to an adjacent TV. They were also searching for a dog and another cat. It seems the cat made a sharp exit out of a broken window while the BA team were hitting the fire. The dog was found behind the front door. He wasn't there when the BA teams entered as they'd done the customary sweep behind the door. I think he saw the door was open and made a dash for it only to be caught behind the door as the BA teams came in. Luckily he must have been getting a blast of fresh air from the outside and, bizarrely, he came out on his lead, as good as gold, with one of the BA team looking like he was off for a walk in the park!

So, my quiet evening in didn't happen. But it felt good to see that almost lifeless cat pull through and be able to return it to its owner…

I am proud to say that stroking a lifeless pussy and bringing it to life isn't a bad way to spend a Friday evening. However, I should have called it a cat before saying the above to the present Mrs C!!

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