BIRMINGHAM TORNADO

Two USAR dog teams responded to the Birmingham tornado incident to assist West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service USAR team, in the aftermath of this incident.

The following teams attended this incident:

- Jo Evans & Jake
- Arwel Hughes & Fflam
- Roger Howells as a USAR Technician and team safety

Further details of these dogs and handlers can be found at the locations page of this web site.

On Thursday afternoon 28^th July the City of Birmingham was hit by a tornado which caused extensive damage to buildings, resulting in West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service (WMFRS) declaring a Major Incident.

The Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath, Moseley and Kings Heath areas were worst hit, and West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that it had treated 20 patients, including three with serious injuries.

Peterborough in Cambridgeshire was also hit in the late afternoon. Police said the high winds caused structural damage in the Paston area of the city but they were not aware of anyone being hurt.

 At around 1800hrs a request was made for assistance from the UK Fire Service Dog Team and myself and search dog Jake responded from Merseyside.

 I was in attendance by 1850hrs and immediately deployed to search for persons reported in collapsed structures in the Ladypool Road area.   We cleared 6 buildings in various states of collapse where the occupiers had not been seen since the tornado had struck.

 This took a considerable amount of time as the buildings were in a dangerous state, and littered with broken glass and other sharp objects which present a real hazard to Jake.   Finally, we cleared a garage where the roof had collapsed over the cars on the forecourt.

 Thankfully, there was nobody trapped for us to locate, to keep Jakes spirits up one of the WMFRS USAR team hid for me so I could give Jake a live find.

 We were joined by Arwel Hughes, Roger Howells and dog Flamm from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service at around 2130hrs.  Soon after the incident commander took the decision to withdraw the Fire Service and to standby throughout the night.

 We then redeployed to Highgate Fire Station where they caught up on some well earn rest.

 The decision was taken at the Silver Command briefing on the morning of the 29^th July to withdraw the Fire Service on the basis that all persons were accounted for.

The respective dog teams returned home having impressed the WMFRS personnel with their professionalism and work rate.

 The Chief Fire Officer gratefully acknowledged the attendance of the USAR Dog Teams.

Photos of the dog teams at work will soon be available.  In the mean time check out these other sites for more details of this incident.

Further information on the incident can be found at UKUSAR under news page.