Our well rehearsed crews deal expertly with high rise flat fire

Fire crews from Bedford and Kempston attended a flat fire at Beecham Court in Greyfriars Bedford in the early hours of 29th December 2010

Time of call was 00.57 and four fire engines, the Incident Command Unit and an aerial platform were despatched to what was reported as a fire in the bedroom of a flat on the 5th floor.

An woman occupant had left the flat and fire crews began firefighting immediately - but despite this the property was badly damaged by fire. Due to practised precautions conducted by the fire crews, no smoke or fire spread to other flats and there was no need to evacuate the other residents - instead they were told to stay safely indoors.

The flat below was water damaged, it is believed by the domestic supply during the incident.

Incident Commander Andy Draper said: "The management of the situation by fire crews meant that what could been a very serious incident was dealt with efficiently and effectively with the minimum of distruption to neighbours in the flat. Naturally many were awoken by the activity but were advised to stay in their own flats while we dealt with the situation. Only the gentleman in the flat below was inconvenienced by water coming through his ceiling, from what we think was the domestic water supply from the flat above."

ends