Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service
When the new workshop container was positioned in the lower yard at Medstead it was initially place on cut sleeper supports to level it. Subsequently concrete block supports were built as permanent supports, however, the concrete blocks couldn’t be taken fully up to the base frame of the container as the weight was still on the sleeper supports so a slight gap remained. A Building Department volunteer, who is also a firefighter, arranged for a team from the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to come to Medstead to undertake a training exercise to assist with the transfer of the container from the sleeper supports to the concrete supports.
In due course a fire engine duly arrived and the fire crew tackled to task using the inflatable bags used in road accidents and other situations where heavy things require lifting to free trapped persons or to gain access to collapsed structures. Strong steel frames were place under the container and the bags laid on top of these and then a complicated system of pipes and valve controls set up connected to compressed air cylinders. The bags were inflated to lift the container – only slightly – off the sleeper supports so they could be removed and then the bags were deflated to settle the container on the concrete supports.
The fire crew were very pleased to be able to carry out the training exercise in a controlled situation in order get more firefighters familiar with the techniques of using this equipment. We were also pleased to have knotty little problem solved in a mutually beneficial manner.
In brief a few other things on our busy schedule have been continuing and some others completed. Another chair renovation has been carried out, this time a Booking Clerks chair. At Alresford station the new staff parking area fence arrangements have been put in place to improve the appearance instead of the unsightly crowd barriers. The crowd barriers have been temporarily moved to fence off the cattle dock siding until a more in-keeping permanent barrier system is installed here.
The pathway extension to the relocated foot crossing at Alresford has now had the boarding completed. It just remains for the non-slip sheeting to be applied ready for the wetter months later in the year.
Bob Brooks.
