Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue 21 Jan 2021 Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service attend 98 flooding related incidents

Over the past 24 hours, 08:00 am 20/01/2021 to 08:00 am 21/01/2021, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MAWWFRS) have received 233 calls through its Joint Fire Control.

Of the 233 calls, Joint Fire Control received 140 flood-related calls. 71 calls of external flooding, 57 calls of internal flooding and 12 calls where the flooding posed a risk to life.*

Amongst the busiest station areas during this period were Abercrave, with 11 incidents, Llandeilo 8, Ammanford 8, Carmarthen 7 and Welshpool 7.

MAWWFRS activity at these incidents included deploying Swift Water Rescue Teams to rescue a total of 13 people from vehicles in floodwater, winching vehicles from water and pumping water from properties. This was in addition to responding to road traffic collisions and property fires in our service area.

During this period, crews from Llanelli and Tumble also attended two property fires in Bryncoch, Llanelli at 04:16pm and in Felinfoel, Llanelli at 06:07pm.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Roger Thomas, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said “Over the past 24 hours our crews have been extremely busy, having attended 98 flood-related incidents in harsh and treacherous conditions. This is in addition to attending house fires, road traffic collisions and mitigating the damage to people’s properties from the effects of Storm Christoph. This was all done whilst operating within the current COVID-19 restrictions. 

Whilst our incident activity has returned to normal, for now, there are weather warnings still in place and colder conditions are expected to continue through the next few days. I would urge all drivers to carefully consider if their journey is an essential one to take. If you must drive, please, do not drive through floodwater as it only takes one foot, or 30cm, of moving water to float your car and as little as an eggcup-full of water,  entering  your engine, is enough to cause significant mechanical damage. 

I would like to take this opportunity to  thank our operational crews and staff at the Joint Fire Control for their outstanding and tireless work in what has been a very busy and challenging 24 hours period.”