BlueSkyNick
Well-Known Member
Suppose somebody, a complete unknown, decides to throw an old flare into marina skip. Some days later the waste disposal contractor lorry comes by and empties the skip. The machinery in the lorry compacts all the marina rubbish in with all its previous pick ups.
Some seconds later bright red smoke starts pouring out of the back of the lorry. The driver becomes very nervous in case the whole lot catches fire, moves into a space away from cars and boats, and asks the marina staff to call 999.
10 minutes later, a fire engine which has driven through the town at haste, arrives and the incident commander takes control. Firemen don breathing apparatus. The side of the lorry is very hot causing a fire risk in the hydraulic fluid in the lorry's machinery.
A second fire engine arrives, as does a senior area fire officer and a police car, the whole area is cordoned off.
The Incident commander instructs the lorry driver to tip the load into the marina car park, while his men stand by with fire hoses. 5 tons of rubbish, most of which came from all the previous collections before the marina, is tipped out and hosed down. Eventually they find a floating smoke beacon, which has been discharged and is still hot. Its label shows it expired in 2005.
The two fire engines, nine fire fighters and the police car depart the scene. The rubbish lorry gets off on its round 45 minutes late with a driver whose nerves have now calmed down enough for him to drive.
The marina manager has to then arrange for a much larger skip to be delivered and for a local plant company to provide a lorry with a grab to clear up the smelly, wasp infested pile all at a cost yet to be known.
Much time and money has been expended by a lot of people, the marina visitors have been inconvenienced, and the marina manager's day has been somewhat spoilt.
The whole situation could have been much much worse. The culprit still cannot be identified, despite very high quality CCTV systems.
Moral of story: PUTTING FLARES IN BINS IS VERY DANGEROUS AND TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE. Even though the official procedure for disposal is tedious, it makes sense. If you cant get to a CG station, at least take them to a police station who takes them in - for example, Lymington certainly does.
Some seconds later bright red smoke starts pouring out of the back of the lorry. The driver becomes very nervous in case the whole lot catches fire, moves into a space away from cars and boats, and asks the marina staff to call 999.
10 minutes later, a fire engine which has driven through the town at haste, arrives and the incident commander takes control. Firemen don breathing apparatus. The side of the lorry is very hot causing a fire risk in the hydraulic fluid in the lorry's machinery.
A second fire engine arrives, as does a senior area fire officer and a police car, the whole area is cordoned off.
The Incident commander instructs the lorry driver to tip the load into the marina car park, while his men stand by with fire hoses. 5 tons of rubbish, most of which came from all the previous collections before the marina, is tipped out and hosed down. Eventually they find a floating smoke beacon, which has been discharged and is still hot. Its label shows it expired in 2005.
The two fire engines, nine fire fighters and the police car depart the scene. The rubbish lorry gets off on its round 45 minutes late with a driver whose nerves have now calmed down enough for him to drive.
The marina manager has to then arrange for a much larger skip to be delivered and for a local plant company to provide a lorry with a grab to clear up the smelly, wasp infested pile all at a cost yet to be known.
Much time and money has been expended by a lot of people, the marina visitors have been inconvenienced, and the marina manager's day has been somewhat spoilt.
The whole situation could have been much much worse. The culprit still cannot be identified, despite very high quality CCTV systems.
Moral of story: PUTTING FLARES IN BINS IS VERY DANGEROUS AND TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE. Even though the official procedure for disposal is tedious, it makes sense. If you cant get to a CG station, at least take them to a police station who takes them in - for example, Lymington certainly does.
