North Wales | Electrical fires warning following Llandudno fire
Llandudno | 17 Feb 2012
A Senior Fire Officer is warning of the dangers of electrical fires following yesterday’s fire in Llandudno where three people were hospitalised.
Firefighters rescued three people from the property on Trinity Avenue, Llandudno yesterday morning (Wednesday February 15).
An elderly female and her adult son are currently still in the Intensive Care Unit receiving treatment for smoke inhalation. The other casualty, another adult son, was released from hospital yesterday afternoon after receiving treatment.
The fire investigation has identified that the point of origin was located in a ground floor under stairs cupboard, and the fire is thought to have been caused by an electrical short circuit. Further investigations are ongoing.
Colin Hanks, Assistant Chief Fire Officer from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “Our thoughts are with the casualties of the fire and we wish them a speedy recovery.
“This fire highlights the danger of electrical fires- they can strike anytime, anywhere. It’s important to be as prepared as possible in the event of fire, by ensuring that working smoke alarms are fitted in your home and that you have clear escape routes to enable you and your family to exit your home as quickly as possible. We would also appeal to residents to ensure that areas housing electrical items such as fuse boxes are kept clear of rubbish, papers or other combustible materials which could aid fire spread.
“In addition, there are some simple steps you can take to help prevent an electrical fire in your home. They include:
- DON’T overload plug sockets
- DO Regularly check for worn or frayed wires
- DO Unplug appliances when not in use
- DO Keep appliances clean and in good working order
“To help keep you and your family safe from fire, North Wales Fire and Rescue Services offer free home fire safety checks and, where necessary, free smoke alarms. By calling 0800 169 1234 or visiting www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk you can arrange for a member of staff to visit your home and offer fire safety advice specific to you and your household.”
Wales | Llandrindod fire station goes very green
Llandrindod | 17 Feb 2012
Members and senior officers of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service´s Fire Authority paid a visit to the site of the new Powys command building at Llandrindod this week.
This is the first fire station built by Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue service to ensure value for money and an efficient use of space, incorporating a divisional police station for Dyfed Powys and a multi disciplinary magistrates court facility for Her Majesty´s Court Service. Mid and West Wales Powys command will also be accommodated within the first floor area of the building.
Jonathan Evans, Head of Powys County Command said: “A multi disciplinary building such as this will further improve efficiencies in the county of Powys. Shared areas have been included within the facility which will be utilised for conference, training and meetings by both our service and Dyfed Powys Police.”
Various energy efficient devices have been adopted, such as light and movement sensors; a building management system has also been included to monitor the efficiency of the building; as well as a Combined Heat and Power system which converts thermal energy into electrical energy and provides up to 5.5KW of self generated electricity.
To minimise excessive water run off and encourage the area´s bio-diversity, a sedum roof has been installed. Local wild-life has been further encouraged by the construction of a hibernaculum, which provides shelter for small mammals. Bird and bat boxes have been located around the grounds and access for native amphibians provided along the existing water course at the site entrance.
Richard Davies, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service Head of Estates, said: “The building was designed with a timber clad facade and in time the colour of the larch will grey and the impact of the landscape will evolve as the surrounding planted areas matures. It sits in and not on the existing topography, following the contours of the land, which minimises its impact on the eye.”
Jonathan Evans said: “We are very proud that such a resourceful building has been designed for us here in Powys. Its first class environmental specification, energy saving and shared facilities initiatives will be a valuable resource to the county of Powys”.
Vital Signs:
- The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service serves the following six constituent authority areas – Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Swansea, Powys and Neath Port Talbot.
- The Service covers some 4,500 square miles and makes-up almost two thirds of the landmass of Wales.
- A wide variety of risks are found within the operational area ranging from the petro-chemical industries in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and Briton Ferry, Neath, to the risks associated with heavily populated areas such as Swansea, Port Talbot and Llanelli.
- There is an extensive farming community and many other light industries throughout the area.
- These, together with an extensive coastline and inland waterways are some of the specialised risks within the Mid and West Wales region.
Northern Ireland | One person killed, three injured in RTC near Coleraine
Ballyrashane Road | 16 Feb 2012
A collision between a car and a van on the Ballyrashane Road outside Coleraine left a number of casualties including two children aged eight and ten years.
A 60 year old man was removed by ambulance personnel prior to the arrival of Fire & Rescue resources and was deemed to be in a critical condition.
Firefighters assisted ambulance personnel to deal with the other casualties and a total of 4 persons were taken to hospital as a result of the collision.
Sadly the critically injured man died later in hospital.
Northern Ireland | Two people treated for smoke inhalation after house fire in Ardowen
Ardowen, Brownlow, Craigavon | 16 Feb 2012
A 51 year old man and a 60 year old woman were taken to hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation following a fire in their detached bungalow in Ardowen in the Brownlow area of Craigavon.
Actuating smoke alarms had alerted the occupiers to the danger.
Wales | Ambulance service opens doors to Holywell community
Holywell | 10 Feb 2012
Have you ever wondered what the driving force is behind the Welsh Ambulance Service?
If you would like to learn more about the ambulance service and its valued partnerships then Holywell is the place to be on Wednesday 22 February.
The Welsh Ambulance Service will be holding an open event at Ysgol Uwchradd Treffynnon Holywell High School for the public to learn how we care for them. The event which runs from 6pm until 8pm will provide opportunities to meet staff and learn about changes for the better in the ambulance service.
The Trust is modernising the way it works as part of its commitments to improving the service through its five year ‘Working Together for Success’ programme. To showcase how new developments are taking the Trust forward, visitors will able to look around stands from different departments and health partners, and chat to staff at the event.
Represented at the event will be:
• Emergency Medical Service (EMS)
• Community First Responders
• Partners In Healthcare Team
• NHS Direct Wales
• Local developments/estates
• Welsh Language Department
The Trust will also be joined by representatives from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Betsi Cadwaladr Community Health Council.
Regional Director for North Wales, Gordon Roberts, said: “We are really keen to showcase how we are improving the quality of our service for the Flintshire public and want to hear their thoughts on how we are taking the Welsh Ambulance Service care forward into the future.”
“By meeting your ambulance service, you can learn how nurses are helping us make sure 999 calls get the right response, find out how NHS Direct Wales’ health and information support can point you in the right direction for help and discover how you can make a difference as one of our volunteer Community First Responder lifesavers.”
He added: “This event will help you learn about all the different strands of the service and how they can benefit you if you need health support and help. Visitors will also have the opportunity to talk to other local groups and organisations during the event.”
Wales | Hotelier pays tribute to lifesaving paramedic
Welshpool | 8 Feb 2012
A Corwen hotelier doesn’t remember much about the road traffic collision that nearly claimed his life, but he will never forget the paramedic who helped pull him back from the brink.
David Cowan, who runs Bron Y Graig hotel, was reunited this week with paramedic Gareth Williams…the man he says gave him a fighting chance of survival following the collision on the A5104 near Corwen.
He was on his way home from lunch with his daughter in Chester last April when a vehicle came towards him on the wrong side of the road on a blind bend at speed and collided with him head on. The driver of the other vehicle was jailed for a year in December after admitting dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol.
Gareth, who lives in Holywell and is now a full time air paramedic at the Mid Wales Air Ambulance base in Welshpool, arrived at the scene with colleague, emergency medical technician Aled Jones.
“We saw two vehicles both with severe front end damage which indicated a high speed frontal collision. Mr Cowan was sat in his driver’s seat with his legs outside of the vehicle. I could see he had a very serious leg injury and he looked very pale and agitated with blueing to his lips,” said Gareth.
The paramedic, who is also team manager for Denbigh Community First Responders, immediately gave David oxygen and assessed his circulation: “His pulse was rapid and weak and his breathing was rapid and shallow. His head had hit the windscreen and he had an open fracture to his right leg.”
The paramedic dressed the patient’s wounds and moved David onto a spinal board and into the ambulance.
“Mr Cowan kept saying he couldn’t breathe, his breathing was getting shallower and his colour worse despite being on oxygen. I listened to his chest with a stethoscope and found no breath sounds on his right hand side and I percussed his chest which sounded loud and hollow, a sign of a collapsed lung.
With pressure building up in the space around David’s lungs causing each breath to be a struggle and his heart to work less efficiently, Gareth worked quickly to make sure the hotelier could survive the trip to hospital.
Gareth said: “At this point I could see Mr Cowan’s life was in serious danger of slipping away. I inserted a large cannula into the upper chest, into the chest cavity to allow the pressure to escape and allow the lungs and heart to expand and work. If we hadn’t been able to do this, it would have been touch and go as to whether David made the journey to hospital.”
David was rushed by Gareth and Alun to the Maelor where A&E staff were able to re inflate his collapsed lung easing the pressure off his vital organs.
He had also suffered a ruptured artery, a broken femur and open fracture, as well as lacerations to his head and an injury to his nose. A Vascular surgeon from Bangor was able to stem the bleeding from the artery and save his leg.
On meeting Gareth, the hotelier explained he couldn’t remember the incident, even getting into the car at Chester, but recalled saying to the paramedic that he couldn’t breathe while he was still in the car.
Listening to how Gareth pulled him back from the brink, David said he was ‘so thankful’ to the paramedic and Alun for what they both did for him back in April.
He added: “I am so grateful to Gareth, he is a star, I do still have my problems but by God, thanks to him I am still here. I am so grateful I had the chance to meet him, if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here, I owe my life to Gareth and also to the surgeons who operated on me after the accident.”
Wales | Fire Service deploys 4×4 Yetis during weekend snowstorm
Mid and West Wales | 8 Feb 2012
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service made use of its new fleet of 4×4 Skoda Yetis during the snow over the weekend, allowing Fire Officers to access the parts that two-wheel-drive vehicles cannot reach.
Station Manager Neil Evans attended four incidents during the severe weather, and used one of the new fleet vehicles to get around in the snow and to control traffic.
Neil Evans said: “The Service has invested in these vehicles for exactly this sort of eventuality. Over the weekend, the snow was extremely thick in some places, and the 4×4 facility made a huge difference in getting around to different incidents.
“We obviously experience an increase in road traffic collisions when it snows, and using the new vehicle I was able to get around to three different incidents in a relatively short space of time – an incident in Prestigne, one in Ystrad Gynlais, and one in Pengenffordd.
“I was also able to stop on the way back from the Ystrad Gynlais incident to assist a motorist whose vehicle had jack-knifed.”
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Paul Bates said: “With these 4×4 vehicles, we are continuing to invest in our fleet to improve our responsiveness and resilience. The Skoda Yeti 4×4 cars are a great addition to our fleet, giving us real flexibility to deal with incidents in a wide variety of conditions.”
Background Briefing:
- The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service serves the following six constituent authority areas – Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Swansea, Powys and Neath Port Talbot.
- The Service covers some 4,500 square miles and makes-up almost two thirds of the landmass of Wales.
- A wide variety of risks are found within the operational area ranging from the petro-chemical industries in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and Briton Ferry, Neath, to the risks associated with heavily populated areas such as Swansea, Port Talbot and Llanelli.
- There is an extensive farming community and many other light industries throughout the area.
- These, together with an extensive coastline and inland waterways are some of the specialised risks within the Mid and West Wales region.
Wales | ‘Care’ bears on standby to help young Flintshire patients
Flintshire | 31 Jan 2012
Flintshire ambulance service staff are starting off the new year with a fresh contingent of furry recruits who are helping put a smile on the faces of young patients.
Whitford Mother’s Union members presented staff at Holywell ambulance station with a batch of trauma teddies this week.
The gift is part of a project the Worldwide Mother’s Union is running to support youngsters who need treatment by the ambulance service or at hospitals, and maybe scared by what they face.
Flintshire and Wrexham Locality Ambulance Officer Jo-Ann Dyson accepted the teddies on behalf of the Welsh Ambulance Service.
She said: “Staff are really grateful for these teddies, as they are useful for us to have for calming down children who may be frightened, making their journey in an ambulance a lot more comfortable.
“We can also encourage a child to point us to their injuries by them showing us where they hurt on the teddy. “
The Teddies will be distributed amongst vehicles on duty across Flintshire.
Jo-Ann added: “The Trust is really pleased that local Mothers’ Unions are supporting us with such a worthwhile project.”
Wales | Leader of ambulance service retires after long and distinguished career
Wales | 30 Jan 2012
A change in industrial fortunes manufactured a new horizon for a young engineering apprentice, nearly four decades in the ambulance service laying the foundations for what exists in North Wales today.
And now after 39 years of service, Tregarth paramedic Dafydd Jones-Morris is calling time this January on a career spanning all elements which support the service.
Dafydd, the son of a policeman and educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen, joined Caernarfonshire Ambulance Service in a temporary role in 1972 at Bangor, following a depression in the manufacturing industry in the region.
“I completed an apprenticeship in heavy engineering but due to the demise in demand I was looking for a new outlook. I volunteered for three years in the local A&E department to help brush up first aid skills, and an opportunity for an ambulance job arrived and following a successful interview, commenced my career that has given me immense pleasure and satisfaction.” he said.
Dafydd, who is married to Eirian and has two grown up daughters, undertook training at Wrenbury Hall, at Cheshire, alongside other colleagues from North Wales, Merseyside, Birkenhead and Northern Ireland.
“The rota that we worked was some days we did outpatients and acted as backup for emergencies, other days we performed only as emergency responders. Some of the jobs we attended took us all over the country. Taking emergency transfers to Merseyside accompanied by police escorts was a regular feature and occasionally, much further afield, such as one journey that involved taking a patient up to Aberdeen.
Dafydd added: “Everybody got to know you personally while I worked at Bangor…they knew you were in the ambulance service. People would stop me in the street thanking me for my involvement with their father or friend, colleague etc…”
During the late 70’s, Dafydd, along with other colleagues was keen to expand his knowledge and training and gained an Associate and Fellow qualification through ICAP (Institute of Certified Ambulance Personnel) before gaining a formal qualification in 1986 as a Paramedic.
Dafydd, whose twin brother Trefor is a minister in Wrexham, qualified as an ambulance aid instructor in Yorkshire and then took a post as a relief control officer at Caernarfon. Despite being situated in control, he was seconded to keep teaching ambulance aid to staff and first aid to community groups.
Occasionally he would be seconded to Liverpool on Technician and Paramedic courses as well as teaching members of the public and other organisations basic first aid
He even turned his hand to risk assessments, getting involved with planning for ambulance response to the massive underground Dinorwic power station if workers got into difficulty cleaning the sump pool.
“As part of the ambulance service I was privileged to have access to the part of the power station that the public were not allowed to go.”
Based on the doorstep of the Snowdonia range, Dafydd helped to enhance the partnerships with RAF Search and Rescue and Mountain Rescue… today the two still work side by side with the Welsh Ambulance Service when needed.
“We dealt at lot with helicopter transfers, mainly from Snowdonia, you got to know the mountain rescue and RAF teams and we built up a good rapport with them.
Dafydd and colleagues were privileged to work with the air crew on exercises out at sea and even once by a famous Liverpool landmark.
He recalled: “I participated on an exercise where I was winched from the aircraft onto a moving RNLI boat in front of the Liver building with hundreds of people watching and then be winched off… it was quite an experience!”
Dafydd spent many hours working onboard the RAF Valley aircraft and also worked with North Wales Police onboard their aircraft, paving the foundations for how the air ambulances are used today in Wales.
He has been a keen advocate of the use of ‘Air Ambulance’ and has used his knowledge and relationships, to assist with the establishment of a very successful scheme in Wales.
“Involvement in outdoor rescue operations in the North West of Wales led Dafydd to become involved with Llanberis Mountain Rescue and as a volunteer Snowdonia National Park Ranger
“Even though I was in Control I was used in an operational capacity from time to time; I was used to attend serious incidents because of my training… unfortunately I had more than my fair share of these. “
His relationship with the North Wales Health Boards began to take shape after he left control to become a headquarters service manager.
Dafydd explained: “I was dealing with non ambulance transport for the benefit of the health boards as well as lease cars and coordinating outlying van services to meet the needs of the NHS.
“I came into contact with a lot of people in senior clinical posts and we worked together on a lot of processes.
When the ambulance service became the North Wales Ambulance Trust, Dafydd became one of two divisional officers and stepped up to Regional Ambulance Officer when it became the Welsh Ambulance Service in 1998.
“Previously, I had been through many changes but to become the Welsh Ambulance Service was a massive challenge in terms of policy and processes and, more importantly, structure. The first real test was the planning for the millennium, not just on the party front, but also internally with our IT structure but we came through that.”
His career has led to involvement with many organisations and roles. These have included the promotion of Road Safety, utilising staff with similar aspirations to promote and engage with various groups.
Throughout the Trust, Dafydd has supported the promotion of Welsh Language learning to benefit both staff and patients, as chairman of the Welsh Language Implementation Group.
Dafydd will continue to support the function of ‘Dangerpoint’, a facility supported by the Local Authorities and Emergency Services to help educate and promote safety in a variety of different environments.
After stepping down, Dafydd will continue to perform with Cor y Penrhyn who he has been a member of for over 30 years, touring and performing both in the UK and aboard.
“It’s a privilege to belong to a choir with such a long history which has given me such an outlet.
And his engineering skills will be fully dusted off when he continues volunteer work with the Welsh Highland Railway Society as a Ganger.
“The last three years I have volunteered to help with track laying and maintenance which has been nice as I’ve been able to use my engineering background.
And his thoughts on the career he leaves behind?
“It’s been a real privilege to work in the ambulance service through the period I have and with the people I have worked with. I have been very fortunate to have this opportunity and development over the years, meeting many people and gaining their support. Having worked in various departments and having experienced a range of roles and responsibilities has been beneficial. My career has been wide and varied but most importantly, whatever the role; patient care has been paramount and must be the focal point of any role. I have experienced the good and not so good elements that come with the job. It is not a role that is suited to everyone and one must take cognisance of this when recruiting, making sure that potential newcomers realise what the role involves.
“I was given a tip when I started, whenever you are offered an opportunity for your own personal development; take it, even if it means moving away from frontline work… it’s well worth it in the long run.”
Elwyn Price-Morris, Chief Executive at the Welsh Ambulance Service, added: “Dafydd has been instrumental in the development and delivery of ambulance services in North Wales and more recently across Wales. His friends and colleagues wish him the very best and a long and happy retirement.”
Wales | No injuries in major fire in derelict chapel in Cwmbwrla
Cwmbwrla, Swansea | 21 Jan 2012
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service were alerted to a fire in a derelict chapel in the Cwmbwrla area of Swansea shortly before 4.30am hrs on Saturday 21 January. The first appliance to arrive found the chapel to be well alight, and the roof of a neighbouring garage building had also caught fire.
At the height of the fire ten fire appliances and 50 fire-fighters were at the scene, and the blaze was brought under control using eight jets and a water tower. The blaze was contained to the chapel and the roof of the garage. The residents of four properties on Carmarthen Road were evacuated as a precaution.
Station Manager Craig Thomas said: “Crews worked very hard in conditions that were made worse by gale force winds, and were able to stop the blaze spreading beyond the chapel and adjoining garage. The blaze is currently under investigation jointly with the South Wales Police Crime Scene Investigators”