Saltash fire crew’s hectic 24 hours, pool to Devon wildfire

Four separate call-outs inside one day would leave most of us needing a lie down. For the crew at Saltash Community Fire Station, that was simply how the last 24 hours went, with barely a pause between jobs.

A chemical scare that ran into the evening

It began just after 1pm, when the crew were called to a chemical hazard incident at a local swimming pool. What might have looked, from the outside, like a short technical callout turned into an 11.5-hour job, keeping the crew tied up for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.

Called across the border to a major wildfire

By 10.10 the next morning, the same crew were back out again, this time crossing into Devon for what was described as a large wildfire. Saltash’s crew played a major part in the incident, helping bring it to an excellent, quick stop before it could take further hold. The footage shared by the station shows the scale of ground affected, and the work involved in damping it down.

Cover from Callington, as a bonfire got away from itself

While the crew were tied up over the border, cover at home came from Callington, another Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service crew based just up the road. Their shift wasn’t exactly quiet either. They were called to a bonfire at a Saltash address that had spread to a garden fence and needed quick action to bring under control.

A caravan fire near Looe, and a stand down

The day’s final call came at 18.54, when the Saltash crew responded to a caravan fire just past Looe. In the end they weren’t required, arriving on standby and ready to assist rather than called on to fight the fire itself.

It capped a 24-hour spell that took the crew from a swimming pool plant room to a Devon hillside and back again, with barely time to restock the appliance in between.

📷Credit: Saltash Community Fire Station