BCN Canal helps Birmingham firefight

Explosion at battery plant - Express & Star

There was a potential canalside ecological disaster at Willenhall on Tuesday night when the G&P Batteries battery recycling factory caught fire.

The link above is an excellent (albeit brief) report from the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star, which combines local newspaper reporting with on-the-scene video superbly.   This is the way local news needs to be in the 21st Century. 

I've praised them before about this, and the paper has increased its readership hugely by doing this, as the UK Press Gazette has observed.

But what I thought most interesting is, it's the first time I've noticed those little red canal bridge 'gates' being used.

These are positioned on many (most?) Birmingham-area canals, and allow fire engines to get a ready supply of water for exactly this purpose.  What a pity the journalist didn't catch the procedure on camera - or perhaps it got edited out.

There's a selection of night pics there too, from Shaun Fellows, who's got strict rules about other people using his pics without permission, so I can't post any here.

Mind you, I'd rather have taken my own - you know what I'm like with nocturnal scenes.  I photoed a night firefighting scene last year, but it was only the aftermath of another ho-hum joyriding car theft, and I think I can do better.

Comments

[Max Sinclair]

The fire doors were installed during the last war blitz by the fire brigade and helped save many buildings bombed with incendiaries.

[Halfie]

Thanks for putting me in the picture - I mean putting the picture in the post. Well, not as in "the cheque's in the post", obviously. I now see what you're on about. Even if you can't see what I'm on about. Am I twittering? Yes. And that brings me on to your Twitter box. That five mile walk back to your car is taking a long time. A very long time. (Mad, mad........)

(Sensible mode) Did you get through Froghall Tunnel, then?