Apart from attending fires, as one would expect, Fire-fighters are called out to many other kinds of incidents for which their specialist training and equipment makes them ideally suited.

Road Traffic Accidents (RTA)

The Fire & Rescue Service is called out to a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) if a person is trapped in a vehicle following an accident and needs to be released without further injury. All front line fire appliances carry special hydraulic cutting and spreading equipment for removing doors and roofs from vehicles, as well as air bags for lifting heavy weights from trapped persons.

Animal Rescues

Animal rescue kits are held at three points within the county, Storrington , East Grinstead and East Wittering . These stations hold a large animal tackle which is used to extricate farm animals from slurry pits, ditches, wells, rivers or anywhere else they manage to become stuck.

Personnel receive special training at Brinsbury College in the use of this equipment and in handling domestic farm animals.

Certain rescues still require a large amount of ingenuity when normal rescue methods are not possible.

Planes and Trains

The Fire & Rescue Service is also called out to air and rail crashes where their expertise in casualty extrication comes into its own, fortunately these events do not often happen.

In the 50 years the Brigade has existed there have been only five major train crashes, Littlehampton in 1949, Ford Junction in 1951, Barnham Junction in 1962, Littlehampton again in 1963 and Christ's Hospital in 1964.

The sighting of many post war military training aerodromes in the area contributed to an unusually large number of aircraft crashes in the 1950s and 1960s, during which time eight RAF or Royal Navy aircraft were lost in the county.

As the air bases closed the aircraft crash landing became more civilianised in nature, the worst air disaster of all being on 4th November 1968, when an Iberia Airline's 'Caravelle' aircraft, on route from Malaga to Heathrow, crashed in woods near Fernhurst , all 57 passengers and crew were killed in the impact and subsequent fire.

The emergency services were heavily involved in this disaster, seven fire appliances and two service vans carrying emergency lighting, 16 ambulances, various Army units and all available Police were rushed to the scene but to no avail.

In a later incident a trainee glider pilot forced landed into woods near Parham House, the glider coming to rest precariously balanced on a tree and a high tension power line. Once the power had been turned off the Brigade was able to rescue the pilot and her tutor using a hydraulic platform.

Flooding

The powerful pumps fitted to fire engines make them ideal for all types of flooding incidents, from burst pipes and water tanks to major natural disasters.

The WSFRS was heavily involved with the major flooding that occured in Chichester during the winters of 1994/5 and 2000/01. Both occasions involved a prolonged responce with crews assisting with pumping operations 24hrs a day.

Chemical and Oil Spills

Each pump appliance in WSFRS carries a chemical and oil spill clean up pack donated by the Environment Agency . The kit contains absorbent socks and granules, also pads and strips of a putty like substance used to block drains.

Using these kits fire-fighters are able to mop up anything from a minor fuel leak or burst drum to a major incident like an overturned fuel tanker and stop the chemical reaching the water supply.

A quantity of larger chemical spill equipment is carried on the Incident Support Units based at Bognor Regis and Horley which can be rushed to the scene of an accident if needed.

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