Author: charley-farley-737

With a freshly made mug of tea plonked on my desk, it was asking for trouble.

And there it was – literally right outside my window. I looked out to my left across Alexandra Road to the main road that's about 150m away. How come there was thick fog on the main road but Alexandra Road was fog free?

Perhaps it's not fog – my razor-sharp detective mind started to see other possibilities here! What if it was smoke? That would make it a fire just a few hundred metres from my office. Nah, can't be. If it was a fire then my trusty little alerter would be playing merry hell by…

And we're off! My alerter kicked into life and I was out of the office like a scolded cat. As I ran towards my car I could see the smoke getting thicker. Arriving at my car I looked down the side of the Doctor's surgery and could see flames licking out of the roof of Anchor Fisheries.

This seems odd. I'm at the fire but have to drive to the fire station to come all the way back again! Meet Ladder 1 coming in the opposite direction and me thinking that they'll have their hands full for a few minutes waiting for us to back them up.

Multiple calls had been made to Control who had now made the decision to send the ERT too.

So, three fire engines all approaching the building from a separate side and getting plenty of water up into the open roof. Three hydrants were used so each pump had plenty of water, if needed.

Then it was up onto the roof for myself and Gary, wearing BA. We worked from a narrow valley in the roof, stripping off tiles and giving the seat of the fire a good drink.

And apart from making the remainder of the roof safe – that was it. Back to the fire station to service our BA sets and then home for a shower. It hasn't done much good – I still smell like a kipper!

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It's been absolutely ages since we've had a night time shout. Months in fact.

But at 2.20am this morning that little record went out of the window as I went out of the door!

Two pumps to a caravan on fire, next to derelict shop at the bottom of The Ravine – at least that's what I think the tip sheet said! It wouldn't be the first time that someones read one thing but the tip sheet, on closer inspection and by someone who is more awake, has actually said someting completely different…

Plenty of smoke wafting about in the sea breeze as we pull up behind Ladder 1. Cheesey supplies them with our tank of water as I head off in the direction of the nearest hydrant. Thankfully, we have done a number of drills in this area so the hydrant was easily found. This hydrant is at the end of the line which, quite possibly, also supplies the Birds Eye factory. My kitchen tap has got more pressure behind it than this hydrant. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers…

It's actually a motor home that's been completely burnt out. Tad suspicious as to how an unattended vehicle can spontaneously combust. But this is Lowestoft and strange things do happen in the wee small hours.

With the wind and spray whipping in off the North Sea which is only 100m away I'm glad this is September and not January…

Back to the fire station an hour after leaving and me heading for a snooze on the settee.

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Do you know, there is a direct correlation between me having food in front of me and my alerter going off… It's true.

This morning, with the weather feeling particularly Autumnal, I wandered round to Tesco's and bought some fresh milk and a bag of jam doughnuts. I looked upon the doughnuts as something that, with all that sugar, would get me through the day.

So, coffee made and me just reaching for the doughnuts is guaranteed to get my alerter agitated. And there it goes, didn't even get a taster of the sugar coating. Bugger!

On my way to the fire station I met Ladder 1 going in the opposite direction into town. I'm second in and get the drivers position and see that we're off to a house fire just north of Lowestoft town centre. Even as I'm getting on to Ladder 2 the bells go again. The job is now Make Pumps 3, so must be a working job.

We book mobile with a crew of four to ensure there are enough to crew the now needed ERT. As we neared Dene Road a fair amount of smoke could be seen, blowing across Corton Road by the strong Westerly breeze.

Jason and Ben made their way to the BA entry control, ready to be tasked with a job or act as Emergency Team to BA team already committed. Meanwhile, I started to pump my water over to Ladder 1 until a hydrant could be found.

Shortly after our arrival there were assistance messages for the Hydraulic Platform from Great Yarmouth as well as Make Pumps 4 – bringing Clifton out to play too.

By now the fire had spread from its original seat (in a cupboard) up into the loft and from there was spreading right and left into the adjoining properties. BA teams were committed into all three premises and, through their swift and decisive actions, prevented the fire from taking hold in these other properties.

The Hydraulic Platform arrived and was sited ready to work at removing tiles on the roof of the affected property.

And while all this is happening you can't but help notice little things going on around you…

The police have been called to close off roads but are the first to get a cup of tea… Made me smile as I darted here, there and everywhere, getting ladders, running out more hosereels, setting up a BA area, etc.

And what about the good old British postie. The mail will always get through! So, as mayhem reigns around him he is depositing his deliveries into open doorways even as smoke is still billowing out! He even handled a bundle to a surprised firefighter and said, "Could you make sure they get these, please?" And this was for the house that had had the fire!

Then, with all the excitement over, it was time for the tidy up. It always amazes me the complete and utter buggers muddle that hose and hosereel seems to get itself into. All that away then a human chain removing buckets of charred remains from the house…

Back on station and the cooks rustled us up double egg, bacon chips and beans – bloody lovely! And I still forced down a jam doughnut when I got back to work.

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If not perhaps they do the breast stroke or should it be the udder stroke?

Anyway, Friday morning and I just about made it into work but found myself retracing my steps to the fire station at the behest of my alerter.

The tip sheet said 'Cow in 6ft of water'. Silly cow – should have used the shallow end!

So we now found ourselves in Ladder 1, following the Water Rescue van and with the Unimog trailing behind, as we headed off to Barsham, near Beccles. Unfortunately, the location we had been given was slightly out. We were on the south side of the River Waveney and we needed to be on the other side. So our little procession went to Bungay and doubled back along the Bungay bypass and then through the country lanes to Geldeston. We finally ended up at a small boatyard where Plan A and B were formulated.

As it turned out Plan A worked. The water rescue team, fully suited and booted, went up the river in a pleasure boat, lassooed the cow and escorted it to a muddy slipway where it waddled up on to dry land.

Job done.

Firstly, apologies for the delay in posting about this RTC. It happened over a week ago but, what with one thing and another, I never got round to tapping away on the old keyboard.

Anyway…

Last Saturday evening I had just about managed to stay awake through the latest Indiana Jones film only in the vain hope that a bloody big marble would roll down a cobweb shrouded tunnel and run poor old Harrison Ford over… Sadly, I didn't make it and was woken from my slumbers by my little black number – that's my alerter and not the little black number that I wear on special occasions and at weekends (joking, honest!).

Over at the fire station and it's a full house of lights up – the ERT (NT06) is already gone with the Watch onboard, next to go will be Ladder 1 (NT01) and finally Ladder 2 (NT02).

The incident is barely a mile from the station, single vehicle totally demolished a section of 6 foot high wall before ending up across the road.

The car is stabilised, glass managed and an equipment dump set up. While the cutting starts I put back an informative message to our Control and ask for an ETA of the ambulance.

Once they've arrived and the paramedic is happy, the roof comes off and the young lady is removed on the long board. While being assessed on the ambulance trolley one of the firefighters covers the casualty with one of our ancient grey blankets. She is then wheeled away to the waiting ambulance.

Then its packing all the gear up and also time to retrieve our blanket. The following conversation is real and I can only assume that the ambulance technician is very new or, indeed, still in training:

Firefighter (after knocking politely on the ambulance door): Could we have our grey blanket back please?

Technician: We're using it.

Firefighter: Could you not swap it for one of yours?

Technician: But we don't carry grey blankets.

Firefighter: What have you got then?

Technician: Just these white hospital blankets…

Firefighter: Any chance of swapping our grey blanket for one of those then?

Hmm…

We had taken what seemed an age to line up three fire engines, the Unimog and the Water Rescue van in front of the Fire Station.

Everything had to look just right. The pumps had been washed, tyre black had been applied and the Union Flag was flying dutifully at half mast.

Normanshurst was preparing itself for the funeral cortege of Keith Boyce to pass the station. And, as Sod's Law predicts, the bells went with about 10 minutes to go. Blue Watch, with our own Dennis Newton in charge, were off to Great Yarmouth to a Make Pumps 5 incident (subsequently went to Make Pumps 9).

As they disappeared off in the direction of Yarmouth we repositioned the vehicles to fill the gap that the departed Ladder 1 had left.

And, as mentioned in my previous post, just as the 'stand at ease' command was given the bells went again and our alerters sprang into life too.

We were off to Gorleston to an AFA at a sheltered accommodation complex.

A slight stand off occurred between that nice Irish Lady who resides in our SatNav and Al, who lived in Gorleston, over the best route to the incident. We duly followed Al's directions, did three sides of a square and popped out on the road we had crossed just a few hundred metres back!

Nice Irish Lady 1 – Al 0

Seems that the culprit was a burnt piece of toast. If I didn't know better I'd think my mother-in-law had popped over to Gorleston for a visit! She is the only person who burns toast in our toaster, swears blind it's the toaster's fault and makes me consider having a BA set 'ready to go' at home!

I'd just put in the Stop message when Control asked if either us or Clifton (they'd been sent to the same piece of toast) were now available. We were and they asked Clifton to standby which normally means they are about to get a Fire Priority. Then our mobile rings and its Control asking if we want to go to an RTC in Gorleston. I said that we'd love to go. So, all on board for a dash through some of the back roads of Gorleston. This time Al was determined to win in the fight with the Nice Irish Lady who lives in our SatNav. Al's instructions weren't quite as precise as that of the Nice Irish Lady and she definitely doesn't use as many expletives as him, but we got there just fine.

So, via the back door we arrived at the RTC – two vehicles with one female casualty medically trapped. A pump from Sprowston was there, probably already on standby in Yarmouth what with the Make Pumps 9 still ongoing. It looked like no cutting was needed as the ambulance crew didn't want the roof removed. The ERT from Normanshurst was on its way but was turned back as it was no longer required.

And so ended yet another drought of shouts and we had to send everything we had into Norfolk to get these…