Category: FIRE

Classic Fire

EFF 317D Merioneth Fire Service Bedford J5

EFF 317D
Merioneth Fire Service
Bedford J5
First registered in July 1966, this appliance wound its way around the narrow lanes of Merionethshire in North Wales. Due to the double cab, the gearbox is not near to the driver. This means a very long kink in the gear lever is needed to reach four foot behind the driver’s position. When new recruits were being taught to drive the sometimes tempremantal vehicle, a crafty rear seta passenger could gently put their foot on the gear lever and prevent the driver selecting a gear!

Fire (General)

Tyne and Wear FRS Volvo FLL / Bence

Tyne and Wear FRS
Volvo FLL / Bence
Incident Command Unit. The only such vehicle in service in Tyne and Wear. The office in the rear includes a communications suite with a variety of communication methods, from satellite comms to fireground radio. The vehicle is based at West Denton Community Fire Station and was new in 2017.

Fire In Action / Medics In Action

River Rescue Exercise (2017)

River Rescue Exercise (2017)

A large tree has fallen onto a river cruise boat in this exercise. There are multiple casualties and the only way to access the scene is by river.

First on the scene, around 20 minutes after the 999 call, was a fire service rib. One firefighter boards the cruise boat to triage casualties while his two colleagues search the river for casualties that have fallen overboard.

More emergency services respond to the major incident. Ambulance HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) personnel are joined by more fire and rescue teams as well as dedicated water rescue teams.

Seriously injured members of the public are tended to while uninjured and walking wounded are evacuated using the fleet of small ribs.

A makeshift reception centre is set up a few hundred metres downstream from the incident scene. Casualties are transferred from the boats onto land. It is the nearest road, so all road going emergency vehicles are parked up there.

Fire service vehicles in attendance include rescue pumps, Land Rovers and an incident command unit.

The major exercise attracted media attention, including a film crew who were embedded with the ambulance HART team for a year. Footage was used on the 2018 series ‘999 Rescue Squad’ shown on the W Channel.

Fire (General)

SF07 PYJ Scottish FRS Mercedes Benz 616D / JDC

SF07 PYJ
Scottish FRS
Mercedes Benz 616D / JDC
The only fire vehicle based on the island of Jura. It has nearly 150 square miles to cover but the permanent population is less than 200 people meaning fire calls are few and far between.