RRT Support Crews Fighting Timber Fire, Norfolk

The Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire at a waste timber yard in North Runcton, near King’s Lynn, just before midday on Saturday 21st January 2017, to find around 40,000 cubic metres of waste timber alight.
Support was quickly called from other stations around Norfolk, including the water carrier from Fakenham, the high volume pump from Thetford and the control unit from Wymondham with an urban search and rescue lighting team. At the peak, 75 firefighters were on site, with more crews coming and going on rotating shifts from even further afield. Additionally, remote pumping stations were set up to pipe water 2.7km from a reservoir to the incident, with capacity to pump more than 3,000 litres per minute throughout the day and night, in what would prove to be a test of endurance in sub-zero temperatures.

Around 2pm on Saturday, Norfolk Fire and Rescue service requested the assistance of the local Rapid Relief Team (RRT) to provide refreshments. Within an hour, RRT were on the fire-ground providing hot refreshments until 8pm, a welcome sight for many firefighters who had worked several long, cold hours.

RRT were back on site at 9am Sunday morning and served meals throughout the day until 7pm. In total well over 200 meals and 300 hot drinks were served to firefighters, which were very gratefully received.

Incident Commander Norman thanked the RRT for the “Absolutely fantastic service – extremely welcome and needed;” whilst another firefighter said, “From the heart, thank you very much for what you’ve done. Everyone is impressed with the quality of the food, the pleasant team who couldn’t help more, and great service with a smile!”
The local RRT team were glad to help and support the hard working crews, and provide sustenance and boost morale for the emergency services as they focused on protecting nearby property and expertly controlling the blaze.
The fire is expected to burn for several days. However, RRT stood down on Sunday night as just a smaller number of firemen will remain on site to monitor the fire.