Cambs FRS: Fire crews respond to Christmas Day emergencies

Firefighters from around the county were kept busy while residents enjoyed Christmas Day.

While families were exchanging presents, visiting loved ones and eating Christmas dinner, fire crews were needed for incidents like flooding and road traffic collisions to automatic fire alarms caused by cooking.

Fire engines, crewed by wholetime watches as well as on-call firefighters, were called away from spending time with their families to attend emergency calls.

On Christmas Day an on-call crew from March was required to attend to a male casualty in cardiac arrest at around 1pm. Firefighters carried out cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to revive the casualty, who was then taken to hospital by ambulance.

This was after an early morning call to assist a person that had fallen in water at around 3am in the town centre, along with a house fire that turned out to be a malicious false alarm.

On-call firefighters from Littleport were alerted three times during the day to various emergency calls. They travelled to Soham to assist with a fire involving a gas boiler in a house, as well as an automatic fire alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm in Ely.

The wholetime crews in Peterborough were also called out during Christmas Day. Firefighters from Stanground were needed at a house fire in an airing cupboard in Whittlesey at around midday, then to help with a flooded house in the evening, which was affecting the electrics in Orton Goldhay. The night duty watch at Dogsthorpe was called out twice within a few hours of the shift starting to automatic fire alarms involving unattended cooking.

The duty watches at Huntingdon Fire Station were called assist ambulance service colleagues to rescue a male casualty in the town at around 5.30pm, then another casualty from the first floor of a house in St Ives in the early hours of Boxing Day.

Area Commander Simon Newton said: "Our crews have done a fantastic job over Christmas being there for residents when they’ve needed help. While people have been enjoying the festivities and spending time with their families, our firefighters control staff have responded to several emergencies. I would also like to say a special thank you to the families of our on-call colleagues who have allowed their loved ones to be available to respond to emergencies over the festive period."