Category: Training

I was hoping to have a reasonably relaxed Drill night last night but the feeling in my water told me otherwise.

A vacancy has arisen at Normanshurst for a Leading Firefighter with the retained section. And last night was the chance for the four candidates to strut their stuff.

By the time we arrived they were well into their 10 minute lectures on a piece of equipment of their choice.

This is where the feeling in my water comes in…

Some how I got 'volunteered' to be part of the five man (or is it person) drill crew. Seems like it was a good idea not stuffing my face with bangers and mash before going to the fire station!

One by one the candidates appeared in the drill yard to take charge of a drill. Each drill had a maximum running time of 10 minutes including the briefing, the drill, the make up and the debrief. So, with this time constraint, none of the drills were too exacting.

The drills are run in a similar fashion to the recruits course – 'fall in three paces behind and facing Normanshurt 02'. You get your safety brief and then are detailed with the drill.

First drill was for two of the crew (myself and Greg) to make our way to the second floor via the internal vertical ladder and then haul aloft a short length of 45. Meanwhile the dry riser was being charged from Ladder two, supplemented by the hydrant. As soon as we had water spraying across the drill yard it was 'knock off and make up'.

The second drill involved the 9m ladder, again into the second floor. This time it was the hosereel carried aloft (by me) and got to work from within the drill tower.

Thirdly is was a simple pumping drill – hosereel got to work supplied solely from the tank of Ladder 2.

And finally we had to set up all the lighting – stem light and scene lights on Ladder 2, generator and two lighting clusters lighting the east face of the drill tower. This was followed by slipping and pitching the 9m ladder into the second floor of the drill tower.

So nothing too hectic but we wanted to ensure that we gave all the candidates the best we could. The spotlight wasn't on us, so anything we could do to make things go smoothly would make the ordeal all that much easier for the four hopefuls.

And that was us finished. While the interviews started, we had a quick brew before finishing off the weekly tests on Ladder 2.

I don't know as yet who was successful. I'm doing some Learn & Live presentations today so may get to hear when I'm over at the station. Can't reveal who my money was on – but then all we witnessed was the drill section of the whole process…

Not sure if 'gaggle' is the correct collective noun to describe a group or gathering of fire engines. All I could find on the Internet was a forum where some ladies had posted their collective nouns for various sized groups of firefighters. These ranged from a 'moist of firefighters' for the equivalent of one crew, a 'damp of firefighters' for two crews and lastly a 'drippingly wet of firefighters' when more than 20 firefighters were spotted in one place!

Hmm… Think I'll just settle on a gaggle of fire engines for this post.

Last night was our drill night and arranged before us was a veritable bevvy of brand-spanking new fire engines – well three of them to be precise.

For the retained firefighters at Normanshurst this was our chance to look over the new appliances and for the drivers to take them out for a run.

These three appliances will all be used as Pump Rescue Tenders (PRT's) in other parts of Suffolk. Normanshurst is due to get the same truck but with different equipment as an ERT (Enhanced Rescue Tender). There is a rumour that to fall in line with the new 4 letter acronyms being used by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service (e.g. CARP – Combined Aerial Rescue Pump) the ERT needs an extra letter. As these appliances are still used as fire engines then it would be fitting to add the letter P ('I'll have a P please Bob!'). Therefore the new ERT's will be known as Pump, Enhanced Rescue Tender or PERT. Then we can all describe it as a 'PERT little fire engine'!

Five of us drivers piled into one of the pumps for a guided tour of the 'flight deck'. There are controls everywhere. You got central locking on the doors and lockers, a computer that displays everything under the Sun to you, lights, strobe bars, red rear strobes and a set of sirens that can probably be heard in the next county!

The driver can control the siren form either the traditional foot switch, a button on the end of the indicator stalk or the two road horn buttons situated on the steering wheel. If these don't attract the attention of other road users there's always the bull horn. If that doesn't do the trick we have a PA at our disposal – 'Oi, dickhead. Didn't you hear the sirens, see the lights and wonder why all the traffic parted like the parting of The Red Sea – move over!!'. And, failing all that, just resort to the good old normal road horn…

I went off for a drive, with Fred (one of the brigades driving instructors) in the OIC seat. I was hoping that Fred wasn't going to treat me to his usual tirade of 'F**k this, f**k that, for f**ks sake', etc. And, thankfully, we had a good drive over to Gorleston and back, some at speed and on blues and two's (not quite right now as it isn't the usual neenah anymore…).

These new pumps have got a top speed of around 72mph, which is slower than our dear old Ladder 2. This M reg pump can make it up to around 85mph on a good day. But what the new pumps lack in top end speed they more than make up for in grunt. They certainly get a good head of speed up from a standing start and you're over 40mph before you know it.

And to round the evening off we had a tour of the lockers, equipment stowage, tried the hosereels (now high up in the middle lockers) and all had a go at getting the fire engines to sit down at the rear or to kneel up – all done from a little remote control in the pump bay.

Not a bad drill night, if I say so myself. It's boys and their toys I suppose…

It was Drill Night last night and, for once, we spent most of the evening outside in the drill yard.

We were to be assessed on our RTC skills by two of our resident RTCI’s – Ian Pettitt and Gary Smart.

I was driving the PRT and we were first in to the single vehicle RTC with Ladder 2 following close behind. Pete Brown was our OIC so his every move and decision was under the spotlight.

The RTC was a simulation of a car going under the rear of an HGV. The car, with two casualties, was also towing a trailer. The car was being driven by Rachael ‘Princess’ O’Connell (I’ll not make any cheap jokes about female drivers…) and her front seat passenger was Al ‘I didn’t touch it’ Soards. Knowing how Al can break anything, he should really have been in the driving seat…

So casualty care was started, stabilisation, glass and plastics management too. At the same time an equipment dump was made of all the gear we would need to extricate our two casualties. And with it being a dark and dank night we needed to supplement the PRT’s stem light and scene lights with our fluorescent lights.

Steady progress was made through removing the glass, cutting all the posts, removing the roof and eventually getting Rachael and Al out on longboards.

Overall the assessment was very good, a few learning points for everyone and just the make-up to do in double-quick time. It always amazes me how quickly a mountain of equipment can be cleaned, dried and stowed when there are plenty of hands about (and when the clock is advancing to 9pm!).

Just a week ago myself and Nubbs (Paul Newberry) had a less then brilliant BA wear on board a disused naval vessel in Lowestoft Docks.

This Tuesday's drill night would give us a chance to redeem ourselves.

We were going to be drilling with Green Watch from Normanshurst, giving Al Soards the chance to take control of a drill, as he would have to in his upcoming CMMI (Crew Manager, Managing Incidents) course. The big difference with this drill was that Al would have three pumps under his command whereas on the CMMI you only ever use one pump.

Ladder 1 was mobilised to an AFA at a 'childrens home' (the smoke house) and everything else would unfold as a normal incident would. Once Al arrived with Ladder 1 he was able to quickly establish that there was a fire and that anywhere between 5 and 7 children were unaccounted for.

Al immediately escalated the incident to persons reported, which effectively makes the incident a Make Pumps 3 plus you would get an ambulance mobilised too.

A few minutes later Ladder 2 was mobilised (giving the sort of time delay that occurs when we get called in by our alerters). And straight after that we mobilised in the PRT.

When we arrived in the drill yard there was plenty of activity with hosereels out, a covering jet and BAECO being set up.

Myself and Nubbs were briefed that we would shortly be committed to the first floor of the 'childrens home' carrying out search and rescue. We set to work dragging a hosereel out to the base of the external staircase and then extending this to ensure we would have enough to complete our alloted task.

By this time the BA team on the ground floor had found and extinguished the 'fire' and had also located casualties. A second BA team (Andy 'Cheesey' Armes and Rachael 'Princess' O'Connell) were then committed to the ground floor carrying out search and rescue and then proceeding up to the first floor.

Now that the 'fire' was out, Nubbs and I made our way up to the first floor, ready to get on with our brief. We made sure we had at least two lengths of hosereel (40m plus) up on the external landing, enough to comfortably see us round the first floor. Then it was door entry procedures, a gauge check and then into the smoke and darkness. We were taking the left hand wall and Nubbs made his way into the gloom while I pulled in plenty of hosereel.

Within a couple of minutes we were in a room at the back of the property. While Nubbs stayed on the wall I moved out to his right to sweep across the middle of the room. Nubbs found a casualty behind a sofa which he offloaded to me, ready for us to make our exit. We did a quick sweep of the immediate area, just in case there was another casualty close by and then started to retrace our steps. I contacted BAECO to inform them that we had found a casualty and that we were heading out.

In no time we were out into the chill night air and making our way to the external staircase. Backwards down the stairs and report to BAECO with the casualty. It was then that we found out that BAECO hadn't received our messages – so a change of handheld radio and ready for a new brief.

Al instructed us to continue from where we had left off, still doing search and rescue, until we reached the head of the internal stairs. As we were about to enter the building we met up with Cheesey and Princess who were on their way out. They had searched up the stairs and round the other half of the first floor to what we were doing.

Back into the smoke and quck progress to where we had found our casualty. We finished this room and headed into a small bedroom containing a cot. Searching the cot, Nubbs found a 'small child' under the blanket. Again, a quick sweep of the room, under the cot, call up BAECO (they could hear me this time) and hotfoot it out of the building again.

Once down at BAECO the drill was complete. Five casualties (all of them) had been found and brought out of the building.

Everyone was upbeat and all felt they had performed fairly well. Once all the kit was made up and BA sets serviced, Al did his debrief of the drill. He told us of the scenario he was presented with and how the whole thing unfolded. Because of the number of persons reported he had put in an assistance message for Make Pumps 5 and also requested additional ambulances. The debrief was good, filling in the blank bits that we were unaware of and also explaining why things were done, when they were done.

Then it was over to Pete Gray for his overview of the drill. Both Pete and Andy English (Watch Manager of Green Watch) were suitably impressed with how Al handled the drill and for the way in which we all took a 'full and active part', showing good team work and plenty of enthusiasm. Al was also praised for the way in which he handled all the resources he had to hand. Normally, CMMI drills only use one pump. Al had three pumps at his disposal and used them very well…

Hang on a second while we all pat each other on the back. Ah, that feels better!

And after last weeks debacle, it was good to have a decent BA wear, complete our task and take part in a well run drill.

Almost made a Tuesday evening enjoyable…

This has to be a record in recent times – two weeks on the trot and we weren’t subject to a lecture!

Mel had devised a drill for two crews and whisked away his helpers for their briefing. Prior to this Mel casually informed me that I would be in charge of the ‘incident’, being Officer in Charge of the first pump.

No pressure then! I’ve never done this before and perhaps being given just a few minutes notice was a good idea, any longer and I’d have stayed at home to wash my hair or something lame like that.

It wasn’t just me that would be working outside their ‘comfort zone’. Pump operators were chosen from the non-appliance drivers – in other words using the main pump is not what they would normally do at a job, they’d be in BA, running hose or one of the hundred other jobs.
My pump operator was Howard Clarke with Paul ‘Nubbs’ Newberry acting as pump operator on the PRT.

The only information I was given was that we were attending a flat fire, which is all you’ll ever get on a tip sheet, and that two pumps were attending.

We pulled up at the ‘job’ and I could see a women (ably acted by Rachael ‘Princess’ O’Connell) at the open first floor window. She had a baby in her arms and smoke was issuing from the window. Before we came to a halt I requested that the 9m ladder be placed to effect a rescue here and that a hosereel, a covering jet, and two BA be readied.

I then proceeded to do a 360 of the building, informing Mel that I would put back an assistance message, persons reported. When I got to the rear of the building I could see another casualty hanging out of the first floor window.

When the PRT arrived I instructed Richard Belsey to get a 9m ladder round to the rear to rescue the casualty seen hanging out of the window.

And it’s about now that things started to turn to rat shit. Mel applied the pressure by constantly asking when the next BA team was going to be committed, that we needed a covering jet to protect the adjoining building and where was the water??

To compound the lack of experience on my part and that of the pump operators we had some ‘problems’ dealt to us. Firstly, the hydrant we had set into was ‘hit’ by a vehicle and put out of action. So, the next hydrant had to be set into. Then Ladder 2 overran its supply and was deemed to be out of action. This meant disconnecting most of the hose from Ladder 2 and reconnecting this to the PRT (including the feed from the hydrant).

At this point we had lost water and had two BA teams in the building. There was nothing we could do but to sound the evacuation signal (short blasts on the Acme Thunderer whistle). Within a minute the two BA teams appeared and made their way to BAECO (Ben ‘Horney’ Horne). One team didn’t have enough air to be recommited so they were told to dump their sets. The second BA team were kept on air to be recommited once we had a good supply of water again.

Getting an adequate supply of water was going to be problematic as the PRT was virtually empty.

For the purpose of the drill I was informed that all casualties were accounted for but we needed to get main jets to work on the building – 3 at the front and 2 to the rear.

Unfortunately, I instructed the crews to make the three deliveries on the PRT into five by using two dividing breeches. With all the hose we had run out already this meant unravelling the spaghetti-like mess. I’d totally forgotten the Lightweight Portable Pump (LPP) on Ladder 2 and was instructed to get this working. So, the now sweating and ever-so slightly knackered crews carried the LPP to the one remaining hydrant and proceeded to get two deliveries to work.

And it was about now that we were given the ‘knock off and makeup’ instruction.

Considering there were a number of people doing jobs they’d never done before, the whole thing could have been worse. I took a lot away from the drill – there’s plenty to think about as OIC, you don’t always get the fire engines that would normally attend, the situation is always fluid and if it can go wrong, it will!

The two hour drill session certainly went much quicker than if we were sitting in a lecture fighting off the onset of sleep!

There was a somewhat delayed start to this exercise due to a little mishap on our way here.

Anyway, we got our BA sets sorted and were divided into pairs – I was paired up with Gary Smart.

Our task was to enter the disused canteen and kitchen area and count how many fire extinguishers were in there and remember their positions. We would then have to mark on plan where they were sited after we had completed the drill.
Obviously we couldn't fill the place with smoke so we all fitted the faithful 'knickers' to our masks to totally obscure our vision. Just to dispel any myths, we don't use actual knickers, clean or otherwise. Our 'knickers' are just an opaque, elasticated cover that keeps you from seeing anything useful and interesting. Thinking about it, that's exactly what real knickers do. At last, I've worked out where they get their name from!

Back to the drill…

I volunteered to go as No.1 and lead the way round the rooms. In all we found 5 extinguishers amongst the tables, ovens, serving counters, sinks, taps, mixers and all the other catering paraphernalia. Ian 'Billy' McMillan accompanied us as BAI (BA Instructor) and gave us good feedback generally but most notably for our communication between team members.

Once we had marked the floorplan with our 'X's' we changed cylinders and prepared for the second exercise.

This time I was teamed up with John Hubbard, with me as No.2. We entered the building on the ground floor, following the left-hand wall and carrying out search and rescue.
A few relatively minor learning points to take away from this one but overall it's good to get a couple of BA wears in.

And that was it. Just the drive back to Lowestoft, service our sets and away just after 2200hrs.

"It's all in the mind…", said George Moran, talking about the temperature and conditions inside the smoke house at Bury (Bury St.Edmunds) fire station. "The mind plays tricks on you, makes you think it's hotter than it is", he continued. Note to readers – in the interest of brevity I have left out expletives!

So here we were, eight of us from Normanshurst to do our hot fire training – BA Risk Critical 2 to give it its proper title. We had four from Green Watch – Mel Buck, Pete Brown, Al Soards and Chris Randall and then the rest of the motley crew made up from the retained section – myself, Richard 'Shambles' Lambert, Jason Balls and Howard Clarke.

George was giving us a lecture in a style that only George can deliver. It's to the point, there's no waffling and you feel like you've been told 'as it really is'.

After the lecture we made up our BA sets and then had a quick tea break – the ubiquitous cheese and onion sandwiches making their usual appearance!

We divided up into pairs, one wholetime firefighter with one retained firefighter. A good idea as we can all learn from each other whether wholetime or retained. We all work with each other regularly anyway as three of the Green Watch members are also retained firefighters at Normanshurst.

Mel and I paired up with Mel going as No.1 for the first drill. Our brief was to enter the building at ground floor, advance up the staircase and carry out search and rescue on the first floor and the mezzanine floor.

Just to back track, I'll explain how this is hot fire training. There's a room on the ground floor of the smoke house that has a fire set in it. It's literally a couple of bales of straw in a cradle which has water sprayed on every so often just to keep the smoke going. You wouldn't think that this would create much heat but temperatures can reach 200^oC. In fire terms that isn't very hot but it's plenty hot enough for dragging hose around and dragging dummies out!

Anyway, back to the drill. After doing an initial search just inside the door we advanced to the first floor. I swept out to the left on reaching the landing and immediately found a casualty – a tiny baby sized dummy. So back down the stairs and leave the casualty outside. We then resumed the search on the first floor and up onto the mezzanine floor. It's just a tad warm on that mezzanine but thankfully no casualties to manhandle down the Vertical Metal Ladder (VML).
We continued on the first floor until we found a second casualty literally at the end of where we could get to. As Mel had the most air he took the casualty and I led the way out.

We had our debrief which was very positive especially about our communication with each other.

A quick change of cylinder and we were out for our second wear. I was No.1 this time and our brief was to enter the smoke house at first floor level and carry out search and rescue. We took the left hand wall and searched a number of 'rooms' finding two casualties. Again, we had a good debrief followed by copious amounts of water to try and rehydrate ourselves.

The final drill of the day took place after lunch and was a combined drill using all four BA teams. The first team (Pete Brown and Jason Balls) entered the smoke house on the first floor (from the drill tower) carrying a charged 45. Their brief was to advance through the building and find the main staircase (situated on the opposite side of the smoke house). They were to descend to the ground floor and start a search as this was a 'persons reported' incident.

The second team (Al Soards and Shambles) were committed soon after the first team to assist with getting the hose through the building and down the stairs. Al and Shambles were volunteered for this job as it was felt that their strength and destructive powers would undoubtedly clear a path straight through the smoke house!

Next in were Mel and myself. We made it to the top of the stairs where we were informed by one of the other teams that more hose was needed. So we retraced our steps and dragged through another 30 foot or so. By now both previous teams had passed us on there way out, each with a casualty.

When we arrived on the ground floor we started searching off the left hand wall and then entered the fire compartment. We could see most of the room from the glow of the fire and sure enough there was a casualty tucked away behind the fire! Mel led the way out with me bringing the casualty. We stopped for what seemed an eternity to brief team four (Chris Randall and Howard Clarke). Standing there, directly above the fire and carrying the dummy I could feel my legs starting to cook. And with legs like mine they wouldn't have looked out of place as a bit of KFC!

And that was that…

As George had said, "It's all in the mind…". He was right. If you started to think how hot it was then strangely it seemed to get hotter. While I was stood there waiting for Mel to brief team four, I had the chance to let my mind wander and, yes, it started to think "f**k me it's getting hot in here!"

The debrief for this drill and the whole day was very positive – nobody had  cocked up…

Just clearing and cleaning up lweft to do plus the hour and a half drive back to Lowestoft with a bunch of weary firefighters and the very strong smell of kippers!

There always seems to be such a long gap between our BA drills. And we haven’t had any decent BA jobs recently so last nights BA drill was a welcome ‘refresher’.

The scenario was that we had turned up to a ‘persons reported’ incident at a second-hand furniture store with a flat above.

The first team committed were Andy ‘Cheesey’ Armes, Howard Clarke and Rachael ‘Princess’ O’Connell. They went into the smoke house at first floor level (the flat) and had to find their way to the staircase, down to the ‘shop’ and carry out search and rescue.

Once they had reached the ground floor, our team (myself and Ian ‘Billy’ McMillan) were sent into the flat searching off the lefthand wall. I went as number one, feeling my way through the smoke, doing the BA Shuffle and keeping up a running commentary (this helps to plant the route in your mind and also keeps your oppo informed of what’s happening).
We made our way through the kitchen, lounge and into a small bedroom – searching each room thoroughly as we went. In the bedroom I could just make out the cot and inside a tiny ‘baby’. By rummaging in the bed clothes I found another ‘infant’ while Billy checked the rest of the room. A quick radio message back to BA Entry Control to confirm we had casualties and were making our way out.

Billy took over the lead while I followed carrying the two dummies. Once we had got these outside we checked the contents of our cylinders and then recommitted to complete the search of the ‘flat’.

All in all, it was a good wear – we completed the task, found the casualties and only picked up a few minor learning points…

Time then to service the BA sets and then make up the two hosereels from the Training pump.

The station clock had just summoned up enough energy to nudge over to nine o’clock and the bells went – two pump shout…  Read more in the next post…

I've lost track of the times that we've collectively commented that a Tuesday drill night passes so much quicker when we are actually doing something practical.

And last night proved the point.

After doing all the weekly, monthly and quarterly tests on Ladder 2, we changed into fire kit and mounted our trusty steeds (Ladder 2 and the PRT) for an exercise in the drill yard.

I was driving Ladder 2 and we were the first to be mobilised to the incident – fire in a derelict building, persons reported. The story was that three children had been seen entering the building, smoke was then seen issuing from the windows but that the children hadn't been seen leaving.

The two high pressure hosereels were run out, ready for two BA teams to be sent in searching for the children. A covering jet was also provided, as usual, just in case.

The BA teams made good progress, finding two of the casualties before we were warned that the building was in danger of imminent collapse. We then needed to warn the BA crews to evacuate the building as quickly and safely as possible. BA Entry Control contacted the crews on their handheld radios backed up by the rest of us on our Acme Thunderers. These are whistles, similar to those used by football referees, which we all start blowing in short blasts until the BA teams have exited the building.

A quick debrief followed and then all hands needed to make the kit up.

Ladder 2 was due for its quarterly tests on the main pump and the Lightweight Portable Pump (LPP) – which is neither lightweight nor particularly portable!

So it was off to Caldecott Road and set into Oulton Broad with the hard suction, primed the main pump and then suck water from the broad and squirt it back in again. After the required 15 minutes of this it was the turn of the LPP.

And those two hours of drilling had flown by. [Section deleted…]

Last night was our weekly drill night and we had the chance to get off station to carry out an interesting exercise.

Pete Brown and Ian McMillan took charge of the incident which was based on the disused shop and toilet complex and the bottom of The Ravine, in Lowestoft.

The scenario was that a young lad had got onto the roof, started a fire (which involved gas cylinders) and had then injured himself up on the roof – having suspected spinal injuries.

Ladder 2 were first in and got water onto the cylinders from a line of 45 and then from a ground monitor. They then started planning the rescue and we arrived on the PRT to assist. I was driver and pump operator on the PRT and we gave our tank of water to Ladder 2 while the hydrant was being setup and fed to us.

The water pressure from the hydrants in that area have no pressure and it takes an age to fill your tank. At the same time you’re trying to keep the other pump supplied with enough water to keep the ground monitor going.

Up on the roof and improvised method of lowering the casualty in the scoop was being devised. After a few adjustments this went very smoothly with the casualty making a gentle descent to ground level.

Time then to make up all the gear, have a debrief and back to Normanshurst for 2100 hours.

I think the general opinion amongst all of us is that we should do more off-site drills. After all we are unlikely to attend a real incident at the drill tower at Normanshurst!