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IT was last year that the front boat of a convoy of five boats broke down in Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent & Mersey Canal, and Staffordshire Fire Service and British Waterways were criticised for standing helplessly by, doing nothing, reports Alan Tilbury.
The fire service did not have the right equipment, and the British Waterways boat that is kept at the entrance, as shown in the photograph, for such an emergency could not be taken in as the broken down boat engine was smoking, and as it was believed there could have been a fire, and the staff were not trained for such an emergency.
So it was left to the people on the boat behind to use their craft to nudge the broken-down hire boat out of the tunnel.
But now, Staffordshire Fire And Rescue Service have put in new procedures for break-downs in the tunnel, which were tested last Thursday.
The exercise involved a mock boat fire in the tunnel, with the rescue service using a purposely built rescue boat having the facility to be driven both ways, which allowed it to enter the tunnel, the fire fighters to attend to the fire, then reverse and pull the boat out.
Another problem is that there is no mobile phone reception in Harecastle Tunnel except for a short distance at each end, and the fire service believed British Waterways should spend money on a communication system in the tunnel, to give them the best chance of saving lives in the event of a real emergency, as no one would want to be stuck in the tunnel as pictured here.
Alan Morgan, Watch Manager at Kidsgrove Fire Station, in charge of the exercise, explained:
"If there is a fire in the tunnel, then the longer it is left the more chance it has of expanding.
"The problem we have is that British Waterways will give a boat one hour 45 minutes to pass through the tunnel. If it hasn't come out by then, the tunnel keepers will have a look with their flashlights and raise the alarm, but by the time we are called and get down there, you could be looking at the boat being in the tunnel for two hours.
"Good communication is the key to any rescue or emergency situation so having no signal for communications in the tunnel makes things more difficult."
He pointed out that there were talks with British Waterways a few years ago to introduce some kind of communication system like telephones on the walls of the tunnel but nothing came of it. |
