PICTURES: Nottinghamshire firefighters help with floods in the North
Firefighters from all over Nottinghamshire have been sent to help drain the ‘unprecedented’ flooding that has affected large parts on Northern England.
Specialist crews from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue have been sent to York this week to assist with the national response to the recent floods there.
A total of 26 firefighters and officers have been deployed, forming a high volume pump crew, an enhanced logistics support team and a specialist boat rescue team.
Team members are there to work with the police, fire and other agencies from across the country to help bring down the water level and make sure lives are not in danger.
The high volume pump crew has been helping to pump away flood water from around the York’s water treatment plant.
Watch Manager Wayne Brooks, who is part of the service’s high volume pump team, said: “We have been working around the clock along with some of our colleagues from Tyne and Wear to pump away flood water from around the local water treatment plant.
“This flood water was causing gulleys in the area to back up and if left this could have left sewage also backing up into the city centre.
“Fortunately we have had two pumps here that have been running for more than 30 hours now and this has enabled us to reduce the level of flooding and therefore reduce this risk.”
The enhanced logistics support team has been helping to organise the deployment of other national resources.
One of the service’s group managers also travelled to York yesterday (December 30) as a tactical advisor on flood rescue.
Station Manager Kevin Cleary, who is co-ordinating the NFRS deployments, said: “We have a number of specialist resources and trained crews here in Nottinghamshire that can be called upon to assist at incidents of national importance or which cause significant disruption or risk.
“These resources and crews are well equipped to deal with this kind of work and our teams will be doing everything they can to assist our colleagues in York and help keep people in the area safe from harm.”
The Service’s latest deployment comes a matter of weeks after staff were deployed to Cumbria to assist with the national efforts there.
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