Fireman Slam!
Red faces all round after prang between two f ire engines ... while making health and safety video
IT is one of the basic rules of driving – when the vehicle comes to a standstill, apply the handbrake.
But this seems to have been forgotten by a group of firefighters filming a training video on how to safely manoeuvre a fire engine.
For when the cameras stopped rolling, the fire engine did not.
And under the watchful gaze of senior officers, the 12-ton tender careered across the tarmac – driverless and out of control – before crashing into another fire engine.
The embarrassing incident, which resulted in a smashed windscreeen and a scraped radiator and grill, happened last month at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) National Training Centre in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire.
One insider at the £43 million purpose-built training facility, which opened in 2013, said: ‘Health and Safety decided to make a video about manoeuvring safely.
‘There were a lot of the top officers there, including five officers from health and safety, the watch commander in charge of driver training and the head driving instructor. The video went well until they stopped filming. Just then they noticed the pump they were using starting to roll forward – right into another appliance.
‘It might have been going slowly but it caused quite a lot of damage to its windscreen, front grille and radiator. The repairs won’t be cheap but that’s nothing compared to the loss of face. Everyone has found it hilarious apart from the bosses. They are mortified.’
Last night, Chris McGlone, of the Fire Brigades Union, said: ‘It’s obviously just been a genuine mistake.
‘Putting the comedy element to one side, it shows just how much damage these huge vehicles can cause even when they are travelling at such a slow speed in a controlled environment.’
SFRS confirmed the incident, adding: ‘Two appliances used as training vehicles were involved in a minor collision at the National Training Centre on January 22.
‘There were no casualties. A damaged windscreen was fixed and the appliance was returned to the NTC on Friday, January 24. Scheduled training continued as planned.’