Monday, 23 November 2009

Mini Tornado Wreaks Havoc in Lowestoft - Alerter

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Alerter
All you ever wanted to know about
being a retained FireFighter in Suffolk

Mini Tornado Wreaks Havoc in Lowestoft

Talk about omens... The sky turning black, the wind howling around the bungalow, the rain lashing down, hailstones rattling on the windows, a plague of locusts, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was bad but not quite up to the last two!

All of this should have made me think that my peaceful Saturday morning was about to be shattered. No sooner had the thunderous pelting of the hail stopped than my own purveyor of noise joined in the fun.

So, shoes on and a dash across to the fire station just as the rain and hail eased off.
With the builders now moved in at Normanshurst we are all having to park on the front apron or use the new drive-thru in Bays 4 and 5. So, as first in, I had to open the small door in the appliance bay doors, crack open the bay doors in front of Ladder 1, unlock the door into the kit room and finally unlock my locker to kit my fire kit out! I don't think Normanshurst has ever had so many locks on so many doors...

Anyway, tip sheet says we're off to a car that has been struck by a tree and that there are two people trapped. In the back of my mind was an incident of a few years back where two people had been killed when a tree had fallen on to their car. Hopefully the outcome of this incident wouldn't be such a tragedy.

We were off to Denmark Road, barely a mile from the fire station. As we neared the incident we could see a trail of damage stretching from the roundabout near the Lake Lothing pub all the way to where the fallen tree lay across the road. Road signs had been bent over by flying debris, fencing and advertising hoardings had been scattered across a childrens play area.

I pulled up about 50m short of the tree where the road widened, leaving space for a paramedic or ambulance to get through. From here the car was barely visible amongst the mass of branches, the tree having fallen across a cycle way, two lanes of Denmark Road and just brushed the cars parked on the far side of the road.

With Jason I set about cutting back the branches with a bow saw, clearing an area around the drivers side of the car. Meanwhile Gary and John were setting up the Powershore on the passengers side to support the weight of the tree, stopping it from further crushing the car.

White Watch were busy with casualty care (one female passenger) and starting to remove the tailgate and seats, ready for a longboard extraction.

We were joined by a paramedic who took over casualty care and, by now, the tailgate was off and the back seats had been removed. Then, carefully, the passenger was moved on to the longboard and out through the open rear of the car.
Job done...

Just tidying up to do, cutting gear and hosereel away and leave the tree removal to the experts from the council.

And an hour and a half after tipping out we were back on station, unlocking this door, opening that one, then locking another - you get the picture...

– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)

www.alerter.co.uk


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