Category: News

After its postponement due to snow last November, our new fire station had its official opening yesterday.

The great and the good of Suffolk Fire and Rescue, past and present, plus many guests piled into the Appliance Bay for the ceremony at 3pm.

Councillor Colin Spence, the portfolio holder for Public Protection, performed the opening ceremony alluding in his speech to how important the station was as a central part of our community.
But before he could finish, the bells went and we hot-footed it through to the turn out printer only to find it was for the Watch with an RTC on the Barnby Bends…

So we sheepishly crept back into the Appliance Bay and listened intently to the Dep as he gave a very good account of himself in saying how wonderful us on call firefighters really are. Joking aside, and I know he was preaching to the converted and those in the know, but it didn't hurt him explaining, possibly for the benefit of the attending councillors, the role that on call firefighters play in Suffolk Fire and Rescue.

Time now for group photos… Everyone, retired firefighters, brides family – you know the score.

We were just posing for a crew piccy in front of the commemoration plaque when a now familiar sound assailed my ears. It's the bloody turnout alarm again – and this time it must be for us!

News just in that the long overdue FiRe Control project is to be scrapped.

This was the project to amalgamate 46 separate fire control centres into 9 regional centres.

Fire Minister Bob Neill said today he had reached agreement with the main contractor, Cassidian, to call a halt to the troubled project.

The Minister said: “The progress of the project has caused serious concern…"

That has to be an understatement!

Read more about the scrapping of FiRE Control »

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.

Firefighters tackled a major blaze in the heart of Hereford yesterday morning.

The fire involved many old buildings and businesses in the historic High Town area of Hereford.

At its height the incident became 'Make Pumps 20' with over 100 firefighters involved. Specialists appliances from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue together with USAR teams helped to contain the fire.

Over 80 BA wears were recorded in what was a difficult incident with many buildings adjoining and with poor access.

To find out more head over to the Tenbury Wells Fire Station website – they were called in when the incident went to 'Make Pumps 16'.

From all the media reports it looks like the crews did a great job stopping the fire spreading. Well done everyone!

A big 'Hello' to Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service as they enter the Twitter world.

You can follow SFRS and find out what's happening in dear old Suffolk.

But not to be outdone, I'm still there on Twitter so don't forget to follow me too!

Here's some news from the makers of The Bluebeards Revenge™ which I've blogged about mainly because they'll be donating 50p from each tub sold to The Fire Fighters Charity and Operation Florian.

"Millions of men all over the world share a common problem – they suffer from tough stubble that defies the attentions of every shaving cream or foam known to man, and blunts the edge of even the keenest razor. These men are known as "Blue-Beards". These testosterone filled men, with jawlines of sand paper tough stubble, have suffered for eternity down to their masculine beard growth, but they can breathe a (manly) sigh of relief, as there is finally a shaving solution that works!

"Designed by a dyed-in-the-wool, real life Blue-Beard, who was bored to death with being a Desperate Dan lookalike, The Bluebeards Revenge™ is perhaps the world's finest shaving solution.

"The Bluebeards Revenge™ is launched this summer after years of testing, where every existing product was tested and dispensed with in turn, before the perfect, final formula was settled upon. Concocted from the finest ingredients and manufactured in the UK – The Bluebeards Revenge™ is available now to make every alpha-male's life easier, featuring the secret ingredient, Decelerine™. 

"This miracle ingredient is exclusive to this product, and is scientifically proven to actually reduce the growth of hair over a period of time, so every time a man shaves with The Bluebeards Revenge™, he is actively delaying hair growth. Over a 60-day period, this can reduce the growth of stubble by up to 40%, meaning a man can get on with what he does best – manliness – without sporting a 5 o'clock shadow by lunchtime.

"Don't take our word for it. Try it and see the miraculous reduction in stubble over just a few weeks, and see for yourself why every man who wonders why he can never achieve the ‘close shave' that the glamorous TV ads talk about, can now realise this dream.

"However, this luxurious shaving cream is more than just a miracle secret formula, and is a signature scent chosen by shaving enthusiasts, based on a fresh and classic English barbershop scent with a modern twist. The aroma and sumptuous thick lather makes shaving a genuine pleasure.

"The Bluebeards Revenge™ is available exclusively at www.shaving-shack.co.uk priced £14.99.  A tub will last approximately 3-5 months."

There was no fanfare, no cutting of tape by a local celebrity and no champagne reception as Suffolk's newest fire station became operational today.

Anyone passing along Normanston Drive can't fail to have noticed the new fire station taking shape over these last few months. And today we moved in. There are still some finishing touches to do as well as some other things I shan't mention but we're in and we're ready to go.

And the fire station that has been known as Normanshurst for longer than anyone cares to remember, is no more.

So we've got a new name to get used to now. We'll be known now as North Lowestoft fire station…

The fun starts when we get our first shout at the new station. Everybody will be tripping over each other, heading in the wrong direction, trying to find something you know you used to have, like your fire kit! It's a bit like moving house except we haven't got time to rummage in boxes – there is normally a bit of a rush to get ourselves out from behind the big red doors!

Hopefully sometime soon we may have an official opening ceremony. If we do, I'll get some pics added…

Links:

• The Full Monty – the hit musical at the Marina Theatre!
• Great value family breaks at holiday parks and lodges in the UK

Firefighters in Merseyside are now regularly attending small incidents like bin fires on one of two BMW 1200 Series motorbikes.

Costing around £25000 each they have two 25 litre water tanks, foam and a thirty metre hose and lance. The bikes are also equipped with a BA set and a spare cylinder.

Take a look at this video on the BBC News website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10716414

So, in future, when Dennis tells anyone not lucky to get on the pump that they're riding the Station Bike, we know what to expect…

Anyone who has driven past Normanshurst Fire Station during these last few months can't help to have noticed the new compact fire station being built at the western edge of the site.

Saying that though, I've had someone comment to me that 'they're building a pretty big bungalow up there on Normanston Drive'! How many bungalows have an integral garage with up and over red door that's big enough to house a fire engine?

The new fire station is close to being handed over to its owners and not long after that we should be moving in.

And, I have to say, the place looks great. We've had the opportunity to walk around the station, inside and out, getting a feel for where things will be situated and our routes through the place when we get a shout. I'm sure there will be a few teething problems to sort out once we're in there but it's looking good and I'm sure it will serve us well.

When we move we will lose our current station number 16 and become 37 instead. I'm still not sure what our station name will be though. It may stay as Normanshurst or it could become North Lowestoft (that way we can keep our present callsign of NT01) or we could be Lowestoft North…

Lowestoft South had the Princess Royal for their official opening. Any suggestions as to who you think should officiate at our opening ceremony?

Please send your suggestions by commenting on this post.

Britain's new coalition Government, the first in most people's lifetime, has just published a 34 page document called The Coalition: our programme for government.

Now I know this might not be your first choice for bedtime reading, may not be a 'page turner' of a novel but bits of it make for interesting reading.

Jump to section 4 (Communities and Local Government) and you'll find the last bullet point on page 12 (left column) worth a read.

For those of us in Suffolk and Norfolk there has been much talk of splitting the local councils in all sorts of ways – at one point it looked like my home town of Lowestoft was going as a free transfer to Norfolk!

But this is what our new government has to say:

• We will stop the restructuring of councils in Norfolk, Suffolk and Devon, and stop plans to force the regionalisation of the fire service.

And the real show stopper is that last bit – "and stop plans to force regionalisation of the fire service".

Does that mean the end to this crazy idea of centralising fire controls? Does this mean that jobs won't be lost in fire controls too?

As yet the new Fire Minister hasn't been appointed, so perhaps we'd better wait and see!