Unfortunately I had a prior engagement
on this day. I understand from my colleagues that there was no let
up in the incident.
DAY 3 ~ SUNDAY 1 MAY
A rare occurance. The phone rang at 0715. I am not normally available on a Sunday morning except when I am Duty Officer and so it was a surprise to receive the early call. I was actually being booked for a relief at Belmont at 1600. This was particularly important as the Duty Officer, having been at Belmont for most of Saturday had been turned out just after 0500 to a Night Club on fire in the centre of Bolton. All the necessary arrangements were made including heading off the the Supermarket to purchase a further 30 loaves of bread.
I was just preparing to leave the house in the 'A' Unit which I had collected from Whitefield earlier, when I received another phone call. "Can you please divert to an 8 pump fire on Scout Moor at Stacksteads near Bacup." My assistant was travelling from the Middleton area to my house and so I had to arrange to pick him up elsewhere on route as we were now heading in a different direction. Whilst passing through Rawtenstall we ourselves were passed by the Command Support Unit and Support pump from Lancaster. We had just set up at the incident when I received another phone call. "Is there any possibility that you could respond to an 8 pump incident in Northwich, Cheshire?" It was evident that we wouldn't be available for quite some time, and so with the 'B' Unit and 'L' Unit having been committed at various times in Belmont, the 'C' Unit from Whitehill was mobilised to Northwich.
Back to my shout in Stacksteads.
Although I was not in a postition to photograph the incident itself, I
did manage to photograph a number of the appliances as they came down from
the moors in the evening, which led to another interesting pairing of appliances.
CSU PO56TVY from Lancaster arrived just before us.
PL06OVZ also from Lancaster was the support pump.
When we first arrived the contact point was T125BCK from Carnforth.
T130BCK from Bacup.
PJ52FMV from Bispham.
W141BRN from Rawtenstall.
West Yorkshire appliance YK51CLZ from Mytholmroyd.
In addition to the 5 pumps above, [not counting the
support pump] 3 other pumps attended from Greater Manchester Fire &
Rescue Service from Heywood, Ramsbottom and Rochdale. None
of these crews came to the SACU. It is quite possible that they attended
from the Rochdale side as Rooley Moor Road crosses the moor from Rochdale
to Bacup.
T128BCK from Great Harwood was a relief pump.
T131BCK from Barnoldswick was another relief pump.
PJ52FML had just arrived from Clitheroe as the 3rd relief pump.
Although these are now the oldest front line
appliances in the fleet, all the 'T' registered appliances still look extremely
smart.
Not often seen together T125BCK from Carnforth
and T128 BCK from Great Harwood.
However, possibly the best pairing of the week was YK51CLZ from Mytholmroyd alongside T125BCK from Carnforth.