Roger Mardon - fire service historian and author

www.romar.org.uk

Fire service historian and author

Roger Mardon

www.romar.org.uk

Photo galleries of historic and modern fire engines
Photographic record of some major incidents
Fact files with information about fire engines and fire service history
An ever expanding source of knowledge for those interested in fire brigades and fire engines
Section on the New Dimension programme and its specialised appliances
News from the firefighting world

WHAT’S NEW

Only the news on this page.

I have been unable to post anything new owing to a computer failure which will keep me out of action for several weeks yet while I restore data.

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New Dimension

High Volume Pumping Unit in Action

Kent USAR Centre

ENCOURAGING DECISION FOR KENT MUSEUM

A decision has been taken that the Kent Fire & Rescue Museum (right) cannot remain at Service Headquarters but there was unanimous support for the principle of keeping the collection together.

It is not the intention to close the existing museum straightaway and everything possible will be done to rehouse the collection in one place.

Every effort must now be made to find somewhere where this can be done.

For full story, click here

The team of 64 British firefighters which flew to Haiti on 13 January to assist in the international rescue effort following the earthquake there returned home early on Saturday morning, 23 January. Searching in areas that had not been accessed by other emergency crews, the UK teams were instrumental in the rescue of five people trapped in collapsed buildings before the search and rescue phase was declared over by the Haitian government .

John Mazzey from Kent Fire & Rescue Service said, “Our initial task was to concentrate our search and rescue efforts in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where the UK International Search and Rescue (UK-ISAR) team rescued several people trapped.

“On Sunday we were sent to the town of Leogane, about 25 miles west of the capital, which was much nearer to the epicentre of the earthquake. We found houses that had been completely ‘pancaked’ (flattened) and worked with local people who had either heard voices in the rubble or knew of people trapped inside.

“We experienced a major aftershock in the early hours of Wednesday morning (20 January) but fortunately it did not harm our crews. Soon after,15 members of UK-ISAR team flew by helicopter to Petit-Guave to carry out reconnaissance. They identified seven buildings that had sustained further damage and cleared these buildings, while our firefighters resumed operations in areas of Port-au-Prince that had not yet been reached by search teams.”

The UK team comprised personnel drawn from Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Mid & West Wales, West Midlands and West Sussex. They took with them two search dogs, Echo, a golden Labrador from Greater Manchester, and Holly, a black Labrador from Lincolnshire, along with 12 tonnes of equipment. Both dogs have been quarantined for six months after return to the UK.

The Haitian government has estimated that 200,000 people were killed in the earthquake. UN sources report that 132 people were pulled alive from the rubble.

SEARCH & RESCUE TEAMS RETURN HOME FROM HAITI

Kent firefighters rescue a man who had been trapped for five days in the rubble.

Photo by courtesy of Kent Fire & Rescue Service

KENT URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE CENTRE OPENED

A full-time base for Kent’s urban search & rescue (USAR) team was officially opened on 3 February.

Work began on the £1.4m building in Loose Road, Maidstone, in April 2009. The centre provides accommodation, teaching facilities and indoor practical training areas for the team. It includes a bespoke training rig with facilities for cutting through concrete, searching through rubble and specialist provisions for training to find trapped casualties.

Click here for pictures and full story.