They came in large numbers – about 25 or so – but thankfully not to put out a fire but to familiarise themselves with our buildings, fire prevention systems and Emergency Plan. We were amused to see that the officers from the Cambridge crew were sporting moustaches for Movember!
Cambridgeshire Fire Service asked us to provide familiarisation training for some of the Cambridge crew but also for the retained officers from the surrounding villages. As the writer of the Disaster Contingency Plan, it fell to me (mainly) to provide this.
So, on the appointed day, one of the fire engines came down the College fire road right to the back of the Archives Centre. The head gardener was happy for them to do this in order to test the resilience of the fire road. All went well.
The assembled fire-fighters being introduced to the Archives Centre by director, Allen Packwood.
They were treated to a presentation about our fire detection and gas suppression systems as well as a little bit on our written Plan and particularly on how they might help us if we needed to salvage our collections after a disaster. It’s quite a difficult subject to put across in an interesting way … They were very glad of tea and biscuits after that! Then there was a tour of the Archives Centre and various other parts of the college such as the ‘operations areas’ we have identified as temporary storage, packing or treatment areas. The highlight for some was probably the opportunity to see one of Margaret Thatcher’s handbags at first hand in our strongroom store.
There was some really good feedback from this event including suggestions about colour coding our priority collection shelves and even considering some kind of emergency chutes for removal of collection boxes in emergency. All their comments will be taken into consideration when the Plan is updated.
They liked this image of Churchill we used in the presentation and a copy of it has been presented to one of the crews to adorn the wall of their station and remind them of our existence.
Churchill walking past firemen in bomb damaged street, London 10 Sept 1940. Reference: Churchill Press Photographs, CHPH 12/F1/43
By the end of the day, all the biscuits had gone.
Sarah Lewery.