Tuesday dawned as a day of great optimism. The crews had worked endlessly over the weekend and had undoubtedly made excellent progress. Accordingly we weren't called out in the morning. However, during the day the wind changed, causing great problems, and it was soon necessary to increase the number appliances in attendance. We were requested to attend shortly after lunch. The first plan was that I should take the 'A' Unit again from Whitefield. However, the 'B' Unit was unavailable at Salford and the 'C' Unit from Whitehill had already been mobilised to the protracted incident at Simonswood near Kirkby. It was decided that it would be better to use the 'L' Unit from Fulwood thereby leaving the 'A' Unit for any further incidents around the GMC and Cheshire areas. A colleague brought the van to the incident, whilst I took my car loaded with some fresh food from Whitefield. This turned out to be a good move for two reasons. Firstly the 'A' Unit was required at a make up at the Red Moss Nature Reserve in Horwich. The second reason will be revealed below.
We were particularly busy on this day. When we arrived on scene, our first task was to make up 75 food packs which could be transported to the fireground. Accordingly, I had much less time available for taking photographs, rightly giving priority to feeding all the crews.
Again the pictures I did manage
to take are presented in the order in which I took them.
PO56TVY the CSU from Lancaster was the contact point today and for the rest of the week.
Support pump for the CSU was PN09PYT from Fulwood.
PN52VJJ from Garstang.
PL06OVY from Nelson.
PF51OVL from Lytham.
T124BCK the reserve pump at Bacup.
A couple of shots of the Softrak arriving back at the incident on board KE07EHJ.
PN09PYV from Chorley.
X146RFV the 3rd pump at Hyndburn.
PJ52FMP from Chorley.
PF51OVM from Silverdale, the most northerly station in Lancashire.
If you have been following my account closely, you will have read that on Sunday I bought 30 loaves of bread. By late Tuesday afternoon we were already running short, and I had to ring home to ask my wife to go to our local Supermarket to purchase another 30 loaves and bring them to the incident along with other items which we were rapidly running short of.
In addition to this incident, the fire at Stacksteads
had started again although there were only a couple of crews in attendance.
We were asked to make food packs up for this incident as well, and when
ready, someone would come across to collect them. A firefighter
duly arrived and gave what was to become the news of the week.
Crews from Windermere in Cumbria were attending the Stacksteads incident!
We were in the process of wrapping up for the evening at Belmont, and so
my wife very kindly agreed to help clean the van, so that I could go across
to Stacksteads to photograph the Windermere pump. Thus this became
the second reason I was glad to have my car with me on Tuesday.
A couple of shots of Cumbria appliance PY52HTO
from Windermere high on Rooley Moor Road at Stacksteads.
The Land Rover was also in attendance but
too far away for me to photograph.
An officer from Cumbria also attended in thie Volvo, PX09ACV.
The other applaince in attendance at Stacksteads was T133BCK from Haslingden seen at the onset of dusk.