Car fires to floods: Guernsey Fire and Rescue attend 24 bad weather incidents

Friday, 22 November 2024 10:25

Fires, floods and flying roof tiles... Guernsey Fire and Rescue dealt with an 'unprecedented number of incidents' yesterday morning (21 November).

Guernsey was battered by high winds, heavy rain, hail, and icy conditions yesterday.

As islanders sought shelter, the island's Fire and Rescue team were put to work, responding to 24 incidents.

The Fire Duty Officer, Phil Kilgour says they attended flooding, road traffic collisions, removal of trees and branches from roads, taking loose roof tiles from buildings including the Town Church, and even attending a car fire.

"We were on the South Esplanade looking at reopening the road from the flooding and whilst in attendance they actually saw the car ignite.

"We were on scene at the time and that was the unusual thing about it, [we] don't often see the car fires happening during inclement weather conditions."

The Town Church called the fire department at the height of the storm, reporting slates detaching from the roof.

As they fell to the ground, they posed a serious risk to pedestrians.

The team used an aerial platform to reach the roof through the netting of Christmas Lights to remove the dislodged slates to make the area safe.