The final flare-up
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MIKE READ, of ROSPA, is greatly concerned about a fire that destroyed two marquees at the final of the Commercial Motor Lorry Driver of the Year Competition at Cranfield on September 7. Whipped by a wind gusting at 20 knots and blowing down test barriers, the flames could easily have done extensive damage and caused serious injury. Mercifully, no one was hurt.
Mike, who was one of the four stewards, is worried by the ineffectiveness of the first fire appliances to appear on the scene, The water, it seemed, was not long enough to reach the flames — and this on an operational airfield.
With an insurance man's professional instinct, Alan Pedley, another steward, at once made a full note of the order of events, starting with a fire in straw bales close to the Overdrive 40sqft marquee. It was then about 10am but according to Alan's re
port it was not until half-an-hour later that the smouldering remains of the two tents were sprayed with foam.
What, one wonders, would have happened if the Lightning aircraft that took off and landed that day had crashed?