Fire services provide flooding support

Resources from a number of UK fire services are supporting Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service to ensure the best possible response is in place at the incident.

To date, fire services from South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Humberside, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and West Yorkshire are all supporting Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service.

This is part of the National Fire Chiefs Council’s National Resilience (NR) arrangements; a coordinated response mobilising and deploying the best equipment, rescue teams and expertise.

To support the operation, the HVPs are now operating across three sectors:

River Steeping Gibraltar Point:

• Four HVPs have been in place since 22:00 on Thursday 13 June
• HydroSubs have been set into River Steeping and are pumping water into the North Sea
• It has been confirmed by the Environment Agency for the next two weeks there will be a ‘neap tide’ - a weaker tide – meaning gravity will also assist the clearing of the water out of the river

Wainfleet Sector

• Two HVPs are on standby

Hobhole Drain Sector

• Six hydroSubs have been deployed to the area
• Four HVPs have been mobilised and two relocated from Wainfleet 

HydroSubs have a submergible pump and up to 60 metres of hydraulic hose lines. The unit can be situated remotely from the HPV and can pump up to 7,000 litres of water a minute.

Fire and rescue services are the largest contributors to the national flood response; working together and with partners to provide fire appliances, teams, high volume pumps, wading teams, swift water rescue trained firefighters on powered rescue boats, tactical advisers, logistical support and standard fire pumps.

Work continues in conjunction with other blue light services and organisations such as the Environment Agency and the Met Office in order to monitor and evaluate the changing conditions.