Light relief
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When surprise snow storms hit the Shetlands at Christmas, cutting phone and power lines, even the fire service would have been immobilised but for the recent introduction of lightweight 4x4 appliances.
The severe snow storms in the Shetlands over Christmas were as much a surprise to Island residents as they were to viewers watching pictures of massive snow drifts from the safety of Home Counties' living rooms
Snow is rarely a problem in the Shetland & Orkney Islands, according to the local fire service. Gales running at more than 50mph are normal; heavy snow less so. "We don't usually get as much snow as northern Scotland," says Alec Kitt, assistant divisional officer at Lerwick fire station in the Shetland capital. "We do get a lot of rain and high winds which create problems when driving vehicles at speed."
The suddenness with which snow disrupted the islands, cutting off power supplies and leaving many small farms cut off, shocked everyone. Fortunately there were no major fires on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when, Kitt says, the fire service had major problems getting about. "There were 12ft snow drifts either side of Lerwick and the snowploughs could not get through," he says. At its worst the snow drifted to a depth of 21ft in the station yard and was drifting to depths of 32ft north of Lerwick. By New Year's Day the roads were passable enough for fire engines fitted with snow chains to reach a hotel fire which left a lounge bar gutted.
But in those extraordinary few days over Christmas, when phone lines were down, and any problem was exacerbated by the worsening weather, Kitt relied entirely on two 4x4s. One was a hired Land Rover, the other a light fire appliance based on an Iveco Ford Turbo Daily—one of two such vehicles on the island. "We relied on these to get to the helicopter site, if necessary, and to incidents in town," says Kitt. Coastguard helicopters are a normal part of firefighting in the Shetlands since Kitt and his officers developed an offshore response team to fight fires aboard ships. Fire fighting equipment is simply loaded on board in bags to be flown to the vessel. Fortunately, incidents over Christmas were on land and relatively minor: a kitchen fire caused by a tea towel left over an extractor fan and a man requiring emergency hospital treatment who had to be dug out. But as Kitt says: "The 4x4s really came into their own." The Lerwick-based Turbo Daily had arrived on the island only weeks before.
The Iveco Fords are among the latest additions to the Shetlands fire service, part of the Highlands & Islands Fire Brigade with headquarters in Inverness.
Two have come into service since September, along with an LDV 400.
Airstrips
The Iveco Fords have a double function: to provide fire cover at remote island airstrips, and to carry out local authority duties in a joint venture between the Brigade and the Shetland Isles Council. One vehicle is based in Out Skerries, 15 miles east of Shetland in the North Sea; the other is to relocate from Lerwick to Foula, 28 miles west in the Atlantic. Along with the LDV, the vehicles have been converted into fire appliances at Brigade workshops in Inverness. They are among 22 vans converted for use throughout the 12,400 square miles protected by the Highlands and Islands Fire Brigade, including the Scottish highlands, the Orkneys, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Modifications to the vans include the fitting of roller shutter doors (two side and one rear); a crew-cab area separated by a bulkhead from the stowage area; and extra side windows. A prefabicated frame slots into the vehicle to house hose racks, extinguishers and other equipment while upgraded electrics power a hazard light bar, repeater lamps, work lamps and powerful interior lighting.
Kitt says the conversions created a lot of interest at last year's fire exhibition: "For air port use we needed a 4x4 with its inherently better ground clearance and it had to have a foam producing capacity" As a result the Brigade designed its own foam-producing system with separate water and foam tanks containing 450 litres of water and 25 litres of foam. "That's twice the amount of foam required by the Civil Aviation Authority," says Kitt.
The light appliances also have the considerable advantage of being able to negotiate narrow island roads in a way that standard appliances cannot.
The Brigade relies heavily on volunteer units. There are 17 on the Shetlands & Orkneys backed up by two units of full-time fire officers. The volunteer stations fall into three categories: light fire appliance, operating a van such as the Iveco Ford or the LDV; ultra-light appliance, operating a Ford Escort van, or similar, without water carrying facilities; and non-mobile, simply a shed where volunteers can collect tire fighting equipment using their own vehicles.
With a total population of only 23,000 spread throughout the Shetlands & Orkneys, major fires are rare, but the potential for disaster remains. Sullom Voe in North Shetland is Europe's biggest oil terminal. It is home to 20 massive crude oil tanks and four LPG tanks: "The worst case scenario doesn't bear thinking about," says Kitt. Sullom Voe has its own full-time fire department run by BP with eight officers on each shift. But in a major incident the Brigade would be involved—and in that case it would be legally required to direct operations.
Then there is the floating population. Lerwick is home to 10,000 but at the height of the mackerel and herring season up to 13,000 people are anchored in its harbour aboard fish factory ships from Eastern Europe. In 1993, a major fire aboard a Russian factory ship, the Chernomorskaya Slava, took more than 10 days to extinguish. The fire was caused when 100 tons of fish boxes caught light.
Temperatures
A Brigade report states that: "Access to the fire was extremely difficult and temperatures excessive." That job drew in relief crews from the Orkneys and the Scottish mainland as well as BP fire fighters from Sullom Voe. Eventually the Ukranian Government paid the Brigade £52,000 compensation but, as Kitt points out, it might have received nothing for its trouble: "Many of these ships are not insured—and that's perfectly legal."
At Lerwick Kitt is assisted by station officer John Robson, a former native of Hexham, Fire-fighters collect equipment from huts in some areas. near Newcastle who was attracted by the challenge: "It's a huge area, the size of Belgium, so communications and logistics present quite a problem," he says, adding: "A lot of my mates thought I must have a screw loose to come up here. But it's unique. We have total autonomy for training and for investigations."
One logistics problem is presented by outlying islands, where backup from a full-sized fire appliance can only be obtained by ferry. Residents of the island of Whalsay have good reason to make sure their smoke alarms are fully working: the crossing from Shetland takes a leisurely 35 minutes...
0 by Patric Cunnane