EMPLOYEES at Reading Buses have been hailed as heroes after they stopped a fire outside an ambulance station in Reading.
At 10pm on Thursday, July 30, Reading Buses driver Leon Gray noticed that there was a fire on an enclosed grass verge next to the Ambulance Station, across the road from the bus depot in Great Knollys Street.
He reported it to the duty supervisor, Simon Flynn, who saw that a tent had caught fire and was starting to set the tinder-like shrubbery alongside the ambulance station alight.
Mr Flynn took a fire extinguisher and began to tackle the blaze while the driver alerted the nearby ambulance crew and an engineer contacted the fire service.
Another supervisor, joined by engineers and cleaners, then rushed to bring out a second extinguisher and buckets of water.
The combined efforts of the Reading Buses team helped to put the fire out before the fire service arrived to thoroughly dampen things down.
Both and Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and ambulance service thanked the team for their actions.
Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are extremely proud of our team for helping avert what could have been quite a significant incident.
“The lack of rain over the last few months has made the area extremely dry and a fire could have spread in minutes to the ambulance station and perhaps to the dwellings nearby.
“I have no doubt that all our team are heroes in helping to avert potential disaster.
“We are grateful that there was no one in the tent at the time and that none of our employees or anyone else was hurt.”
He continued; “It is a testament to our organisation that a combined effort of driving staff, supervisors, cleaners and engineers were able to work together quickly and efficiently to prevent the incident from getting any bigger. It’s this kind of teamwork that we see each and every day to get the best possible service out to the people of Reading and beyond.”
