At 0819 on Saturday April 28, Kent Fire and Rescue Service received its first call to a highly unusual and large scale incident, which would eventually involve over 100 firefighters and 25 appliances
THE CALL RELATED TO WHAT WOULD turn out to be Britain’s biggest earthquake for five years, measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale, which had just struck the east of the county. It lasted no longer than two minutes but caused major structural damage to hundreds of houses and properties, mainly across the town of Folkestone.
The Service started receiving 999 calls that a number of streets across the area were affected, with one early report suggesting that people were trapped inside a collapsed building. Three appliances were sent to the address and the Urban Search and Rescue Unit was also mobilised. The USAR team is one of the UK’s first fully operational units able to respond to a range of major and catastrophic incidents including terrorist attacks and natural disasters. It carries various pieces of equipment, including heavy duty cutters and spreaders, and a four-wheel drive forklift vehicle. Just before the team arrived, the message came in that all residents were accounted for. The unit was then on standbyfor further action during the course of the day.
As well as the collapsed building, the service also received calls reporting collapsed chimneys, large cracks in walls and possible gas leaks. According to the service, within an hour of the earthquake striking, it had taken more than 100 calls and the day’s final figure reached almost 500, which is seven times the number of calls received on average. Kent FRS worked with Kent Police and Shepway District Council, continuing to investigate reports of dangerous structures throughout the day, using its height vehicles, appliances and specialist equipment. It is believed that several hundred homes were damaged by the earthquake but the final figure will not be known for some time, pending investigations by the local authority and insurers. Amazingly only one woman was injured in the incident, sustaining minor head injuries.
Kent’s Chief Fire Officer Charlie Hendry gave interviews to local and national media from the organisation’s headquarters in Maidstone, while Deputy Chief Fire Officer Bill Feeley led a live press conference from the scene. CFO Hendry said: “It really was quite an amazing morning for the residents of east Kent who were woken by an earthquake – and for our staff who had to respond to it. One of the things that impressed me was how calmly and efficiently we responded. These things are always a bit chaotic at first as no one's really sure what's happened but it was soon obvious that we had got a really good grip on things on the ground.” Firefighters continued turning out to calls of dangerous structures until midnight on the Saturday, and crews also returned at daylight, using four height vehicles and five appliances to work with building control officers.
CFO Hendry added: “Although we can never fully prepare for an earthquake or truly predict its effects, our firefighters train hard to respond to all manner of different incidents and the fact that no one was seriously hurt shows they did a fantastic job. I must also congratulate our control room operators who were extremely professional in the way they dealt with such a large volume of calls, often from very anxious or worried members of the public.
“The feedback from other services, but more importantly the local people most affected, has been tremendous and I'd like to say thank you and well done to all the KFRS staff who were involved on the day and the subsequent clean-up.” |
