Issued: 23.07.07

At: 11am

For immediate release

FIRE SERVICE HAS BUSY WEEKEND WITH WEATHER RELATED CALLS

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s Control Room has had a busy weekend responding to calls related to the bad weather.

Following the heavy rain that started on Friday, the Service’s Control Room has taken over 40 calls for assistance to weather related incidents between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon.

Many calls were received from the North West area of the county to reports of flood water entering premises. Most calls were successfully dealt with by giving advice to the occupants over the telephone.

Calls were also received from owners of vehicles that had become trapped in the flood water, many in the Braunstone Lane area of the city. All were successfully dealt with by advice given by Control Room staff over the telephone.

Firefighters also had to respond to calls from animals in need. At around 4pm on Saturday 21 July, the Service’s Control Room received a call to reports of a horse stuck in flood water off Mill Lane in Blaby.

Firefighters from Southern Fire and Rescue Station, based on the Meridian, were able to successfully free the horse from the water after he had been trapped for over an hour, and lead him to safety.

Later on Saturday evening a call was received to reports of a dog trapped in a ditch in the Hall Lane area of Whitwick, but fortunately the animal was able to free itself before the fire service arrived.

A third call to assist an animal was received into the Control Room shortly before 10:30am on Sunday 22 July from the RSPCA to assist in rescuing a swan that had become trapped on a Weir in the Soar Lane area of the city.

A crew from Central Fire and Rescue Station used rope rescue equipment to free the swan, who had become trapped against debris by the fast flowing water. The swan was then safely handed over to the care of the RSPCA.

Tim Herbert, Head of Community Safety for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service commented: -
‘This has been a very busy weekend for our Stations and Control Room but all our staff have responded in their usual industrious and professional manner and helped to keep the communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland safe places to live and work.’

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