Wolverton Beat Continues............................................ One incident I attended later in my service, which required all three emergency services, was a fire at a house. I arrived seconds after the ambulance and on looking through the kitchen window I saw an old man lying on the floor, the house was full of smoke and I knew the fire brigade would not be arriving in the next few minutes as I heard on the police radio that the local fire engine had been called to another incident and the one attending this fire had to come from a fire station further away. I had no option but to break into the house in an attempt to save the man………………………………….The Wolverton Beat Continues……………….. (I will not give any details of the location of the house for reasons which will become apparent later). I broke the window in the front door, but behind the main glass in the door was a clear plastic sheet fixed to the window which, with some difficulty, I managed to break through. Using the inside door lock I eventually opened the door where I was greeted by thick smoke. I knew the rough layout of these type of houses and taking a deep breath I went in keeping low to the ground as I could to avoid as much smoke as possible. I made my way along, what seemed to be, a very long corridor into the kitchen. I groped around, the smoke being so thick, and managed to find the man. I took hold of him under his arms and started to pull him out of the kitchen and into the corridor. By now I was choking with the smoke and my eyes were watering badly, being a dead weight I was having difficulty in dragging the man. I decided to leave him and run outside to take in some fresh air. I took in a deep breath and ran back inside the house and again attempted to drag the man outside. I managed to drag him a few feet but again the smoke became too much and I was forced to run outside again for another gulp of air. When I got outside a paramedic gave me a small oxygen cylinder and mask which I put on and holding the cylinder under my arm I ran back inside again. When I reached the man I took a gulp of oxygen and placed the mask over the man’s face. I put the cylinder on his chest and managed to drag him the rest of the way to the front door where the paramedics took over. One of them took me to the ambulance and gave me oxygen and placed a blanket over my shoulders, I was coughing and choking. By now the Fire Brigade had arrived and the fire officer walked over to me and said “Is there anyone else inside?” Coughing and with watering eyes I replied “No, as far as I understand he lived alone” With that he left me to my coughing the oxygen was helping. After a short time the fire officer came back to me and said “I thought you said there was no-one else inside….you had better come with me” Thinking the worst, I dropped the blanked took off the oxygen mask and followed the fire officer into the house which was now clear of smoke and with surprisingly little fire damage. He showed me into the bedroom where I saw, through my watery eyes, a pair of legs sticking out from the floor at the side of the bed. Fearing the worst I walked around the bed and….. I had to look twice…. but I saw a full size blow up doll, the type that was in an episode of Only Fools and Horses when in Del Boys flat a number of them blew up and appeared from behind a bar in his living room!!! .........I looked around and saw a number of laughing firemen! Just as a matter of interest the old man survived and I received a Chief Constables Commendation for saving him. One of two commendations I was to receive in my 31 years’ service. One evening after a busy late turn I returned to Wolverton Police Station where I met with my two colleagues, Simon and Richard. It was midnight and we were just about to go off duty. A call came over the police radio for a unit to attend a burglar alarm at the cycle shop in Stony Stratford. The nearest unit was at Central Milton Keynes so the three of us booked back on duty got into a police car and quickly made our way to Stony Stratford. We did not have the siren sounding but we did have the blue light illuminated. As we arrived at the premises you will never guess what happened next!!!................................The Wolverton Beat Continues……………………………………...
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 06:41:52 +0000
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