Category: Shouts

There I was wondering what to do to avoid watching the World Cup Final when my alerter solved the problem for me!

Just before 6.30pm I was jogging across to the fire station, hoping we weren't off to Corton Cliffs again. Cheesey beat me in and as the appliance bay doors thudded open he called, 'It's Make Pumps 8." I seem to remember my reply was something like 'Oh for f**ks sake!"

As more of the crew arrived it was obvious there was something big kicking off in south Lowestoft as a huge plume of smoke was visible right across town. Sure enough, the shout was to Wessex Foods on Hadenham Road in the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate.

With a crew of six Cheesey was off and negotiating the increasingly heavy traffic through Oulton Broad and finally passed queues of traffic up Bloodmoor Road.

We were fourth pump in and were greeted by thick black smoke billowing from the factory roof. Cheesey was required to put messages back to Control including 'Make Pumps 12 and 2 aerial appliances required', so I took over as pump operator. Very quickly we were supplying two 70mm lines of hose to the South-East corner of the building – cooling a very large Nitrogen tank and the sides of the smoking metal skinned factory. It became obvious, quite quickly, that we would be over-running the water supply as most of the fire engines were being fed from the same water supply (just different hydrants on that same supply). I therefore had to regulate the flow of water to each of my deliveries to ensure neither was left without something to squirt at the fire.

With the arrival of the Command Support Vehicle (CSV) from Beccles, Cheesey was able to take over as pump operator while I had a few minutes to survey the scene.

The factory processes chickens and as such has a whole lot of nasties (from our point of view) to deal  with – top of the list being Ammonia with Nitrogen and many gas cylinders adding to the fun. On the Western side of the factory I had heard that gas cylinders had been removed from the dnager area while attempts were being made to stop the Ammonia from leaking. Hopefully the thick cloud of smoke rolling away to the South West had persuaded anyone in its path to shut all their windows and doors!

By now we had fire engines and specialist vehicles arriving from all parts of the county. Fire engines from Lowestoft, Beccles, Wrentham, Southwold, Leiston, Stradbroke, Eye, Elmswell (near Bury St Edmunds), plus the Turntable Ladder and support pump from Ipswich and the Operational Support Unit plus pump from Haverhill. And from Norfolk we had their Hydraulic Platform from Great Yarmouth (they'd actually been at their own shout in Holt before coming on to us) and pumps from Yarmouth, Gorleston and Harleston.

To get round the water problem Harleston were sent off to Pakefield Hall, just south of the Morrisons roundabout to 'set in' to their pond. I then found myself with about 10 other firefighters running hose back up the A12 towards the incident.

Over 100 firefighters were called to the fire last night – a huge chunk of Suffolk's resources.

And there was me worrying that we were off to Corton Cliffs! But I wasn't far wrong. While we were at the incident we heard Bungay get tipped out to the cliffs followed by Orwell coming all the way up the A12 to assist them!

I'll hopefully get a few pics on here later today plus any other updates…

*** Just added some pics taken from the incident.

 

 

 

 

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Eight days since our last shout and the pre-bedtime peace was shattered by my alerter springing into life.

Gave Karen the phone, checked doors were shut and then the, now unfamiliar, jog over to the fire station.

I was first in and opened the bay doors before taking a look at the tip sheet. I registered that we were off to 'House' and it was in Northgate, barely a 30 second drive from the station. Then it clicked. We were being tipped out to my old house…

Before long I was sitting behind the wheel  – hand-held radio's onboard, main scheme radio fired up, blues on and our mobile message just complete as Dennis clambered up into his seat to complete our crew of six.

I still hadn't heard the committed message from the wholetime crew who, by now, must be getting pretty close.

I took a wide swing into Northgate and knew exactly where to go. In the gathering dusk I could see a girl flagging us down. Looking to my right, an orange glow was visible in the groundfloor extension. Pump in, hosereel run out, tank open, revs up but no pressure… Air lock. Drop the revs, open one of the main deliveries and force the air out of the pump. Next run out a length of 45, branch in and charge it.

By now White Watch have pulled up behind us and Begz connects his tank to ours, just in case…

Mel and Cheesey go in wearing BA, quickly extinguish the small fire and then carry on into the rest of the house opening windows to get rid of the smoke.

It really felt strange standing outside my old house, remembering how it used to be when we were there. Karen had grown up in that house, bought it off the council with her Mum and then I appeared on the scene and it became our first home. And this is where we lived when Karen had her accident and spent six months in a spinal injuries unit. We'd adapted the garage into a groundfloor bedroom and bathroom and kept the place really nice. It's been sad to see the place get a bit neglected in recent years, rented out by the council, being more of a staging post than what it should have been – a family home.

And it was thirteen years to the day since we moved out… A fact, once shared with my crew, they were happy to keep repeating (and repeating!) for me!

 

For the second time on Saturday my alerter summoned me to the fire station.

Bang on 4pm and I was jogging over to the station and taking one of the BA slots. The tip sheet just said "House" with the address in Edendale, off Sands Lane in Lowestoft.

Even as we entered Sands Lane smoke was visible in the distance – it looked like we'd got ourselves a working job.

As Cheesey pulled into Edendale we could see Blue Watch from Lowestoft South getting a hosereel run out and two guys getting started up in BA. It seems that the fire was in the lounge and this team was going to enter from the front of the property.

Mel and I were readying ourselves in BA with the aim of going round the back of the house and entering through the patio doors. Jason ran the second hosereel from Lowestoft South 01 through the garage and to the rear garden. From here he was able to hit the fire through the open patio door just before the BA team came in through the front.

By now both Mel and I were under air, had given our tallies to Mark Francis and were hurrying in Ballsy's footsteps to the back of the house. As we entered the lounge the first BA team where just dousing the last remnants of the fire.

Mel turned off the gas and electric before we headed upstairs to make sure all the windows were open to allow the house to ventilate.

And that was about it for us. We helped to clear some debris from the lounge but I think we all were thinking how lucky the occupants of the house had been to escape unscathed.
But it could so easily have been worse.

Have you thought about escape routes if you have a fire in your house? Think of different scenarios and how you would exit the building. Make sure the whole family know the plans and have a 'dry-run'. Test your smoke alarm at least once a week. Just three breaths of smoke can render you unconscious. Don't leave it to chance…

And if you still need convincing, take a look at some of these Government fire safety adverts.

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So the mission to silence my rumbling stomach commences…

Cold day so I brought something to bung in the microwave. My antiquated microwave was on its final few Countdown style seconds and I was just waiting for the 'bing' that would signal that my piping hot Carbonara was ready to eat when…

"Bugger! For f**k's sake! You're having a laugh!"

It's not the eagerly awaited 'bing' but that familiar sound that means the rumbling stomach will be rumbling a while longer yet!

Needless to say I wasn't best chuffed that my M&S (only the best) lunch would now be starting to congeal as I hot-foot it out of here. But duty calls and that's probably why the Government is now calling us on-call firefighters in the hope that people understand what we do instead of the traditional retained firefighters.

Get to the fire station and, before I even see the tip sheet I know what it's going to say, yes, Commercial Road and it's persons reported…

This time, as we pull into Commercial Road, smoke can be seen issuing from the old British Transport building.

I supply Lowestoft 01 with water and Mark and Jason head to the BAECO board to be the emergency team for the BA crew that have just entered this derelict and potentially dangerous building.

Again, all persons accounted for…

When the initial flurry of activity was over my stomach reminded me that it now required attention.

Back in the office, over an hour after leaving, and there was me cutting chunks out of my congealed Carbonara and chucking it down my neck.

Job done – stomach silenced…

 

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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