Episode 7 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues, an entire terrace of houses is at risk

as fire spreads from house to house. Is there someone still inside?

Yeah, we've got ten breathing apparatus-wearers in there at the moment

and they're searching both sides and dealing with the fire

both internally and also external firefighting as well.

And we've got a real heroine here. She's called Fiona

and she saved a life on the way into work at Ambulance Control

when a two-year-old boy's heart stopped not once, but twice.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues.

They call this impressive centre at Sussex Police headquarters

the contact room, and every day they take well over 1,000 calls.

Today, we'll be hearing about rescues carried out

by the police here and by all the other emergency services.

Ringwood in Hampshire is a historic market town

mentioned in the Domesday Book.

It's full of century-old buildings and narrow roads,

incredibly picturesque and peaceful - until there's an emergency.

It's early evening and crews from three counties

are heading to a house fire in Ringwood that's so serious

an entire street is under threat.

For the Southampton crews, it means a 20-mile motorway dash.

Heard on the radio earlier that there was smoke issuing

and Ringwood were having trouble getting access to the premises

cos of parked vehicles on the road making it difficult for them,

and our water tender's in front as our support vehicle.

The alarm was raised by a terrified man at home with his toddler.

He dialled 999 after finding upstairs full of smoke.

Green Watch arrived to find clouds of smoke billowing into the sky.

The narrow streets are full of emergency vehicles.

Basically, we've got a fire in a mid-terrace property.

It's gone up through into the roof space,

it's now threatening to spread to the two roof spaces either side.

We don't know whether or not we've got persons unaccounted for yet,

so we're treating it as though we have.

We've committed crews in there -

we've got ten breathing apparatus-wearers in there at the moment

with firefighting media and they're searching both sides

and obviously dealing with the fire both internally and also external firefighting as well.

70 firefighters are involved.

Some are tasked to search for anyone trapped in the burning house

while others cool the roof spaces of neighbouring properties

in an attempt to stop the fire in its tracks.

Six houses are under threat - the entire street has been evacuated.

We're talking about very old buildings here -

we're not talking about modern construction.

You've potentially got a roof void that, potentially,

can go 70m from one end of the terrace right the way to the other.

The father who raised the alarm got out with his son,

but the firefighters have to systematically search

every room of the burning house and the two next door

before they can be satisfied no-one is still inside.

Because the property's quite small, we're limited as to how many we can get in there at any one time,

but obviously we're making sure we've got a constant flow of wearers in there

to start dousing these flames down and actually searching for anyone that could be inside that building.

They're working in appalling conditions.

As we got nearer to the top floor, visibility was pretty much zero.

The heat was quite phenomenal coming out there,

and once we turned the corner and looked up the stairs,

the whole top floor was fully engulfed in flames.

The fire crew's safety is paramount.

80, how are you feeling - are you all right? Well done.

The movement of each crew is logged on the whiteboard.

The levels of air in their tanks constantly monitored.

130. Well done, buddy. Good stuff.

They have to search very strictly.

They go in on what either called a left-hand search or a right-hand search,

and basically that means if you're going in and you're on

a left-hand search then your left hand never leaves that wall.

If you want to get out of the building, you turn around

you put your right hand on the wall and you follow the wall back out.

That allows us to, obviously, find our way through smoke very, very easily.

Yes, please. I'll talk to our team when they come out

and find out what the state of play is in that building.

They're in number 16.

Finally, the crews working inside can confirm there's no-one trapped.

We progressed on to the first floor

and searched what we believed to be the children's bedroom.

Luckily, we found, again, it was completely empty.

We then proceeded upstairs

when we started to hit some heavier smoke logging

and by this time we knew we had a quite severe fire in there.

Now the fight is on to save the terrace.

Despite their best efforts, the worst has happened -

the fire has spread along the roof space to the neighbouring houses.

Three are now alight.

We'll be finding out whether that terrace of houses can be saved later in the programme.

The 999 call we're about to hear

is from the scene of a terrifying emergency.

A child's heart stops beating not once, but twice.

It happened when John Waldie was driving his partner, Danielle,

and the nightmare began when Danielle noticed her two-year-old son

had turned floppy and was vomiting.

John slammed on the brakes and got young Shay out of the car.

Luck was on their side.

Driving behind them was Fiona Thompson, a clinical supervisor

from the North East Ambulance Service and this is what happened next.

Well, such chaos and so frightening for everybody concerned.

Well, I'm very happy to say that I've been joined by Mum and Dad,

Danielle and John, and little Shay, there - hi, Shay.

-Say hello.

-Well done.

And the heroine, Fiona.

I'm going to start with Mum and Dad first.

Normal car journey, little lad in the back

and it must have been just so frightening for you.

It was horrible. It was horrible.

Just from going to a place where we were happy to go

and then for him to collapse in the back of the car

was just horrible. Horrible.

And so worrying for a mum. Your little boy - how did you feel?

Just thought he had went, I had lost him.

He was only two - I thought he had went.

Yeah, thought he'd gone, you saw this commotion,

Fiona, in the car in front of you. What were your initial thoughts?

I thought it was a fight. I thought they were having a domestic,

cos this car just stops, doors fly open,

people were running all over the place.

-I thought they were a bunch of idiots.

-A bunch of idiots?

I mean, we can talk about it and laugh about it now,

but when did you click into action

and realise something was seriously wrong.

It was Danielle. Danielle's voice.

I just knew there was something really wrong, and then I saw the baby.

And then I realised there was something wrong with the baby.

-So, Danielle - she was screaming, she was shouting?

-Crying and screaming.

She was just screaming and shouting and asking somebody to help.

-So, thank goodness - I mean, you were so lucky.

-Very lucky.

You jump out of the car and you grab little Shay.

What were your instincts? You obviously listened out for breathing,

what was going through your mind?

He looked very sick.

He was blue so he obviously wasn't getting enough air in

and I noticed he'd been sick, so I was thinking,

"Has it gone into his lungs? Is that what the problem is?"

So we got off the road, got him on to the side

and I was trying to ask his dad, had he been playing with toys,

had he choked on a toy, had he been eating, had he choked on that?

Just trying to get some information, but hadn't been eating,

didn't have any toys in the back of the car and then, obviously,

once I assessed him, he just wasn't breathing.

He wasn't making any effort at all, so I had to start helping him.

When did you realise his heart had stopped?

I had to rip his clothes open to be able to get to his chest

and as soon as I put my hand on to his pulse, there was nothing.

Nothing? And what were you doing, Mum?

It must have been, I suppose, so chaotic for you.

-You freeze, I suppose.

-I just didn't want to look.

I didn't want to know it was...

I knew it was true, but I didn't want to see it.

I just wanted everything to be normal again and...

Oh, it must have been horrible. I feel for you.

I mean, how did you get his hard going again?

Initially, just some compressions

managed to get him going quite quickly the first time

and he started to, sort of, rally a little bit,

he started to get a better colour

and then obviously we were busy making the 999 call

and I was in the middle of speaking to my colleague

trying to get some further assistance down there

and I had kept my hand on his chest the whole time,

having a feel, and it stopped again when I was on the phone.

-For a second time?

-Yeah.

So you obviously did exactly the same process again?

I gave him some breaths on the second time

because obviously he had been down too long without any air

-so I had to give him some breaths.

-Was that mouth-to-mouth?

-Because obviously the paramedics weren't there.

-Yeah, I was reluctant to do it

cos I knew he had a lot of vomit sitting at the back of his throat

and it could potentially push it further into his lungs,

but at that point I thought, really, there wasn't much to lose.

-You had no choice?

-I didn't have much choice.

Well, as you see him there, he's bouncing around.

What did the doctor say when you eventually got him to the hospital.

What did they say he was suffering from?

Streptococcal septicaemia - toxic shock.

He only had a 20% chance that he would survive.

My goodness, and how long was he in hospital for?

-Two or three weeks.

-Two or three weeks.

70% of his bloodstream was taken over by the bacteria.

Mm.

-So he's a little fighter, like.

-He looks a little fighter.

Are you playing football now, Shay? Are you back to full fitness? Yeah?

Are you playing for Newcastle yet? Yeah?

-Is he a good footballer, Dad?

-Oh, he loves it.

He runs all out with his ball in the garden.

He's looking at me thinking, "He's a bit mad," that boy.

-Is this the first time you've met up since?

-No.

-Second time, isn't it?

Just before Christmas. The week before Christmas.

-You met up with him?

-Mm-hmm.

I bet as Mum and Dad, you're sitting here thinking

-you cannot believe your luck, can you?

-I can't.

No. It's just like a second chance for him, but...

It was the worst part of my life I've ever, ever had to put up with.

Oh, well, we are so happy all three of you are together

and do you know what you do, Shay, when somebody does something good for you -

you give them a big kiss. Are you going to give Fiona a big kiss?

-Are you going to give her a cuddle and a kiss? Go on.

-Oh, there we are.

-What a legend.

-Good lad.

-Oh, that never happens to me.

-Wow. That was a good 'un.

Oh, isn't that lovely and thank goodness for people like Fiona.

Now, we are in Lewes so it's a pretty rural location here

and they are really used to having calls about animals,

but this was an odd one that Esther can tell us all about.

A man called you up and he said that he'd seen an animal on the road. What was it?

He described it as a large creature coming from the side of the road

across in front of him when he was driving, and he described it as a bear.

-A bear?

-Yes.

-At that point did you think there can't be that many bears, can there?

Yeah, we did ask him some further questions, but he was panicking

quite a lot and wasn't really able to give much more information.

So what did you ask him? "Is it a polar bear?"

Yeah, we referred to it as a polar bear to make sure that we could

hear him properly because obviously he was calling on a mobile

and just kept referring to it as a bear and making sure he actually meant that.

What do you do? Do you then start calling zoos and saying, "Have you lost a bear?"

Yeah, I mean, initially we would want to, obviously, get some more information,

so we made sure the local officers were aware

and sent them out to see if they could make any sightings as well

and, sort of, further information, and also then we would contact any local zoos

to see if there have been any escaped bears or anything like that.

-OK. Were there any bears escaped?

-No. We did find him...

Actually phoned him back and asked him, obviously,

for some further details and he was able to calm down

-and give us some further information.

-Which was?

That it had a very large pair of antlers.

At that point, even I know it's not a bear.

Yeah, we were able to assure him that it sounded like a stag

and he was able to then describe further and calm down.

OK. And, presumably, you do get lots of calls with people

concerned about animals around here as well?

Yeah, definitely, and it's really worth people phoning up,

even if they are mistaken at the time - you know,

we weren't sure at the time, so we had to make further enquiries,

so it's really worth people making the time to phone up

if they're concerned for any animals at all.

Do you think he was probably a bit embarrassing later when he realised?

-Possibly.

-I think you would be, wouldn't you? Esther, thank you.

-A great story.

-Thank you very much.

So it was a stag. Oh, deer. Oh, come on.

Now, Lillian had spent a quiet afternoon in the company of friends

when her usually uneventful drive home was rudely interrupted.

She didn't make it home - instead, she ended up at the centre

of a major rescue operation involving all of the emergency services.

Dusk, and two engines from Saint Mary's station

have been sent to an emergency that's off their patch.

A crew from their neighbour station, Eastleigh,

need the help of the Saint Mary's SEU vehicle,

which carries special equipment, to deal with the aftermath of a serious road accident.

We are accompanying the Special Equipment Unit.

It's off our area, but they need some more heavy cutting and lifting gear,

so we don't quite know what we've got yet,

but it's going to be a working job.

And what they've got is a crash at a crossroads.

A transit van and a car have collided with enough force

to send both vehicles off the road.

Firefighter Adie was with the first Eastleigh crew to get to the scene.

Usually never a good recipe - something quite big, like a van,

taking on a car, so we turned up, we saw the paramedics were on scene.

The boss told us an elderly lady was trapped within the car.

The van driver was able to get out

and is being treated at the roadside, so the medical team's main concern

is the condition of the trapped Astra driver -

83-year-old Lillian - who has pain in her chest and her back.

They examine her carefully.

Frailer bones mean a greater chance fractures and drivers over 80

are far more likely to be killed in an accident

than drivers in their 40s.

To get Lillian to hospital, they'll need to cut her out of the car.

The casualty in the car we would, obviously,

be removing the roof or folding the roof over to get them out

because of suspected spinal injuries.

I'm not sure how she is at the moment, but I'm sure we'll find out fairly soon.

It's not just the effects of Lillian's potential injuries

that the team are worried about - it's a winter's night.

They want to get her out of the bitter cold

into the warmth of the ambulance as soon as possible.

We're going to do a roof fold.

Can you just get Ray on the roof and give him the old tap and lift.

-On this?

-They're going to fold it that way.

With this in mind, the fire crews have decided on their plan to extricate Lillian.

Using an electric saw, they'll cut the roof

and then peel it away like the lid of a can.

In this situation, a roof flap would be a lot quicker and a lot easier.

We only have to cut the posts.

We don't have to cut the main windscreen,

which prevents a lot of glass dust.

Can you see if they've got a chord? A zip-lock chord,

once they've pulled it over, to tie the roof down?

We just cut the back half of the car

and then fold it just in front of the windscreen

and it flaps over the front of the windscreen as well,

so it keeps it right out the way and we're able to get the casualty out the back without a problem.

Before they risk moving her,

the medics are fitting Lillian with a semi-rigid body brace.

Along with a collar, it'll keep her head, neck and back

in a fixed position, reducing the chances

of her sustaining other injuries

when they attempt to lift her out of the car.

In the meantime, the fire crews make sure the car is made completely safe.

The very devices that can protect victims of a car crash

can seriously threaten their saviours.

The new safety systems on cars are getting better

and the amounts of them are increasing -

curtain airbags, passenger airbags, driver airbags -

and they can cause serious injuries to firefighters

if they go off unintentionally.

If an airbag went off and the firefighter's head was too close

it can kill or seriously injure.

The fire crews have disabled any airbags that have not gone off.

Now the team begin the delicate process of removing Lillian.

They slide in a board behind her.

She is gently eased back on to it as they lower the car seat.

Painstaking care is taken to ensure Lillian's spine is kept straight at all times.

She was a bit worried about her legs. She felt a bit cold

and it's obviously important to keep them quite warm.

You know, shock - the onset of shock - the first thing they feel,

they start feeling cold, but she was, sort of,

responsive and conscious, so I think she's going to be all right.

Both Lillian and the driver of the van will be taken to the emergency department

at the Southampton general hospital,

where they'll undergo x-rays to check for any injuries.

On incidents like this, all the emergency services work in unison.

With their job now done, the fire crews and the medics

can soon depart, leaving police officer Ian and his colleagues

to set about the task of reopening the road as soon as possible.

We're here now to just obtain some evidence,

take some photographs, make sure the scene's safer.

There's a lamppost knocked down with some exposed wires,

so we've got to wait for Southern Electric and the council to come and make the lamppost safe.

It'll be cleared up and then we'll all be resuming.

At the hospital, the driver of the van was given the all-clear,

but Lillian didn't escape so lightly.

She had broken ribs and was bruised and battered.

She was in hospital for ten days and still has vivid memories of the accident.

It, sort of, got dark - it was dusk - and all of a sudden it got dark

quite quickly and I thought, "Oh - there's the sign.

"I missed it." Then I saw this white car and I thought,

"Mm. That's it. I can't do anything about that.

"It's too late to do anything." And I just waited for the crunch,

and I can still hear that crunch now.

And I actually said out loud, "This is it,"

and I really thought, you know, this was going to be the end.

Thankfully, for her sake, Lillian was wrong.

And then they put this stretcher on and then they, you know,

worked around and took the roof off and I just slid off

and I was very thankful to be out of the car.

Now, Lillian's not facing charges

but has been invited to a driver's awareness course.

Now, I've been joined by Margaret

who's a tutor on these awareness courses.

Now, I have to say, a lot of people come up to me and say,

"80-year-olds - they shouldn't be on the road."

-Would you agree?

-No. I don't think age comes into it.

I'd like to see people be able to drive

as long as they're fit and capable of driving safely.

Yeah, fit and capable and safely.

We all want that, whatever age, but if you're approaching your,

I suppose, mid-70s and 80s, what should you be looking out for?

What should you be doing to make sure that you are safe to drive?

Well, you need to keep fit, obviously,

and also recognise if things are going wrong in your body.

You need to maybe seek advice from your doctor,

maybe get an individual assessment of your own abilities,

someone who doesn't know you who's going to be honest and truthful with you,

but if that happens, you've got to believe in what they say.

-Yeah, got to be honest with yourself.

-Absolutely be honest.

It must be so difficult - I'm not looking forward to when that time is going to come.

It's going to come for me before you, Chris, and I don't know what I would do.

OK, Margaret, so, obviously, it's a big decision.

When should you give up driving?

When you're no longer safe,

and you have to be extremely honest with yourself.

-Margaret, thank you.

-Thank you.

Still to come on Real Rescues,

When exercise ISN'T what the doctor ordered...

Paul, can I just get you to squeeze both my hands as hard as you can.

And the firefighters battle to save a terrace of houses -

flames are leaping from roof to roof.

You've basically got a roof void that potentially can go 70m

from one end of the terrace right the way to the other.

It's the phone call that every parent dreads.

It normally begins along the lines of,

"We don't think he's seriously hurt, but..."

And that's exactly what happened to one mum from Christchurch

when her teenage son got a scooter manoeuvre disastrously wrong.

Rapid Response Paramedic Hannah Hunter

has been called out to a local leisure Park.

A 15-year-old lad has fallen off a scooter in a skate park

with a head injury apparently.

Hannah's met by one of the injured boy's friends who made the 999 call.

His worried mum is also on her way.

-What's he done - come off his scooter?

-Yeah.

He went to do a backflip and landed on his face.

He dropped in down there and instead of actually going on to the ramp he went...on to the concrete.

Chris lost control of his scooter on a steep ramp

and landed face-first on the concrete.

First of all, have you any pain in your neck?

No? Just say yes or no - don't shake your head.

-What about down your back here?

-No.

-No pain?

-No.

Amazingly, his neck and back seem to be OK,

but he's broken his fall with his right hand.

-Have you any pain anywhere?

-Yeah. My finger.

-Yeah?

-And my face.

-OK. Do you live local?

-Salford.

-Anyone called Mum or Dad? Mum's on the way, is she?

-Yeah.

-What about your chest? Any pain there are?

-No.

You've got a nice egg on your forehead.

Any pain around here? No?

-What about your cheeks?

-Yeah, there, cos of my teeth.

He's managed to notch up quite an impressive array of injuries.

Apart from his bleeding hand, he's collected

an egg-sized bump on his forehead, a bloody nose and a badly cut lip.

RADIO CRACKLES INDISTINCTLY

Yeah, 6521. This lad's going to need to go in and get looked at.

Could I have some backup, please? Normal road speed's OK for the time being, over.

But Chris is handling it all well.

This is just, like, salty water type stuff.

I just want to try and clean up what's coming out of where and what's...

-Will it sting?

-I'm going to try and not actually let it touch you.

I'm just trying to grab all this gunk that's coming out of you, OK?

Brace yourself just in case I accidentally do catch you.

Hannah's going to clean him up with saline solution to try to assess the damage.

-What's that hurting?

-I'm just cold.

-You're cold?

-It's the shock.

-Yeah.

-Have you got a jumper or anything anywhere?

-Yeah.

Right, whatever nosebleed was happening I think has stopped,

which is good.

Is your lip sore?

You've taken a bit of a smash right on your face, haven't you?

-What about down here on your nose?

-Ah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

The chances are that Chris has broken his nose.

Are you able to sit up for me? Just so I can get in to you a bit easier.

I'm going to need to have a little, sort of, poke about,

if that's all right.

-Is that sore?

-Yeah.

-What about your bottom ones? They're sturdy, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-OK.

To make matters even worse,

a front tooth is dangling from his new set of braces.

Naught to ten, how bad is the pain in your hand?

-Eight.

-It's an eight, OK.

I'm going to give you some morphine that you can drink.

-How old are you?

-15.

Hannah can't give Chris gas and air to kill the pain

because of his facial injuries, so liquid morphine may be the best bet.

I'm just checking what is considered an adult

when it comes to morphine administration.

Cos he's 15. Some drugs it's 12, some drugs it's 16,

so rather than just give him a hefty dose and hope for the best,

I thought I'd check, but it's fine. You're counted as an adult

so we'll give you the... Well, because it counts as an adult,

but you're only 15, I'm going to give you half the dose

and see how that helps and then we can always

give you a bit more if necessary.

-So you're just going to drink this out of here, OK?

-OK.

-The ambulance crew has arrived.

-Swallow that down.

Hello. He's gone down on his face.

Not KO'd, no neck or back pain.

He's got a nice swelling on his head there, pain on the bridge of his nose.

He's a bitten his lip - his top lip looks like

it might need some stitches - and he's got a brace on apparently,

but his tooth is wobbling but still attached to the brace.

Also complaining of severe 8/10 pain here with some swelling.

His mates called his mum. So I'm hoping she's going to be here soon.

Two, three, up. There we go.

Are you OK? Shaken not stirred.

We're going to go that way.

Chris's mum Tanya arrives just in time.

It turns out she didn't have a car

and had to run all the way from home to be with her son.

It looks like a tooth's become wobbly. Is it attached to a brace?

He's just had braces done, yeah.

And he might have broken his finger so we're popping him down the hospital to get him looked at.

He's had some morphine to try and knock a bit of the pain off. Right?

Don't worry - he's all right. All right? Yeah.

-Please tell me you're not taking him to Poole are you?

-No.

-Oh, thank God.

Technically we probably should,

but we'll see if Bournemouth will accept him.

Chris's mum is worried about getting her son home

if he's taken to Poole Hospital to be examined.

Despite the morphine, Chris is clearly in a lot of pain.

He has only had the five of that, so if we check his blood pressure again

we can always give him a little bit... Yeah, it's his right hand.

Are you OK?

-Cool. See you later, guys.

-Hannah's job is over,

but Chris is heading straight for a session in the x-ray department.

Ouch. Now, the good news is that Chris isn't scarred for life

and has made a complete recovery.

I don't know if it's put him off scooter gymnastics though.

What's really interesting about being here

is the variety of calls that come in, and some of them are really intriguing

and Catherine's got an example of one of those, haven't you?

I have. We've received a call from a jeweller who reported that

a reverend had come into his shop, ordered an item of jewellery

with a value of £4,000 allegedly for his daughter.

Which is a large amount of money for starters.

A very large amount of money, which caused him concern anyway,

but the gentleman kept very traditional records

so he wrote everything down in a ledger.

Consequently, it meant that he then recognised that credit card number

from a fraudulent purchase made the week before.

So somebody had bought something from him

and not paid for it, essentially, the week before, and this was the same credit card?

That's right, and because he wrote it by hand

he was then able to recognise that, so he called us with that report.

We were obviously fascinated by that and thought that there must be more into this,

particularly as it's a large measure of money, so we looked into it and found that the police,

on the address that was attached to the credit card and delivery address,

already were looking at that address for fraudulent activities.

So what we did was let them know when the delivery was going to be made

and the police intercepted that delivery, stopped them,

got the £4,000 piece of jewellery back,

but of course now had enough evidence to be able to get

a search warrant to search the property.

And what is absolutely brilliant about that -

it was all because somebody used old-fashioned methods

of writing things down, so it triggered his memory.

Yes, absolutely, and a fantastic result because the police officers

then carried out that search warrant, they found a large, substantial amount of cash,

fraudulent cheques, but also what was quite amusing

was they also found the papers where he'd been practising forging his signature.

-Great work. Thank you, Catherine.

-No problem.

Now, we saw earlier how fire is raging through a terrace of houses

in the New Forest market town of Ringwood.

Fire crews including Southampton's Green Watch are battling the flames

which are spreading through the roof space

and threatening to engulf the entire row.

70 firefighters from three counties are working flat out

to stop a fire engulfing an entire terrace.

It's already spread from the roof of one house to the two next door.

Working in relays, they're going inside three houses

to tackle the flames. It's a highly unpredictable situation.

Each firefighter updates the next crew about the dangers inside.

The crews are still fighting to stop the fire

spreading downstairs in the two neighbouring houses,

but they can't get enough water inside - conditions are too cramped.

It was very restricted up on the roof space

trying to get in there with any more than one or two firefighters

and, of course, we had the risk that it was going to spread through the roof

if we didn't start putting a good amount of water on to this fire.

For that reason, we made a decision to start to remove some of the roof tiles

and actually then it allowed us to fight the fire externally as well as internally.

The tiles are scorching hot, but the tactic is working.

The water's being directed straight on to the dangerous gases.

The open roof is also allowing the heat to escape.

Three hours after the fire started, finally it's under control.

So we've actually got the fire surrounded,

so, obviously, what will happen now is we'll continue to commit crews

just to actually push that fire back into the room of origin

and obviously extinguish it as quickly as we can.

One home is completely destroyed.

Laura's trying to come to terms with what's happened while she was at work.

My husband said that he smelt smoke and he went upstairs

and there was smoke billowing out of the loft hatch in our bedroom,

so he just evacuated and rang the Fire Brigade

because there was all flames coming out.

No-one on the terrace will be returning to their homes tonight.

As you would expect, a certain amount of panic from concerned residents,

so part of our role is to get them out safely.

Because the police station's so close and that was a safe place to take them,

we took the residents in there to keep them warm

and provide them with tea and coffee and reassurance.

The fire is now completely out,

but three of the houses are in a terrible state.

Laura and her family have lost almost all their belongings.

Tomorrow we've got to go and have a look at the damage,

but they think everything's wrecked pretty much.

You know, especially our bedrooms.

Just everything caught alight and it's all gone.

Thankfully, no-one has been killed or seriously injured.

I've noticed there's smoke detectors fitted in the buildings,

which is really good news, cos obviously, as we know, they're absolute lifesavers.

So that's good to see, especially as there's young families here.

If you get a fire in the middle of the night, everything changes.

Panic can do horrible things to people when they're woken up

by a smoke detector in the middle of the night,

which is why they always say make sure you know exactly what to do if smoke detector DOES go off.

It seems however good somebody's intentions are

to get fit and stay fit, sometimes life can throw a spanner in the works.

Paramedics Danny Milham and Ollie Hunt are heading across town to a gym in Poole.

They're answering an emergency call - a man in his 60s has collapsed.

They are shown to the changing room, where their patient, Paul, is flat-out.

With him is Patrick, his personal trainer.

What were you... What was the exercise you were doing?

How do you feel? Have you got any pain anywhere? No?

For a routine work-out, his symptoms are very worrying,

but it turns out today's work-out is not Paul's first this week.

I just found out he did a two-hour session on his own yesterday,

-followed by a weight class.

-All right, OK.

Before his collapse, the retired company director

admitted he'd gone on a marathon gym session the previous day

as part of a new weight-loss regime.

Paul, can I just get you to squeeze both my hands as hard as you can.

Squeeze my hands, Paul.

Danny's so concerned he's checking Paul for symptoms

that he may have had a stroke.

According to gym records, Paul is diabetic,

which may be a factor in his collapse.

Are you all right, Paul?

Right, Paul. We're just going to stick some stickies all over you, OK?

We're going to take a drop of blood off your finger.

Diabetes affects the body's capacity to regulate blood-sugar levels.

A normal blood-sugar level is five - Paul's has plummeted to 1.8,

a level so low that he's at a high risk of going into a diabetic coma.

The crew need to boost his glucose levels fast.

Paul, I'm going to have to pop a needle in your arm, OK,

to give you some glucose. A sharp scratch in your arm, Paul.

The attack almost certainly happened because he hardly had any breakfast.

In diabetics, this can have very serious consequences.

Paul, I'm just going to put a mask on you, mate, with O2.

Sharp scratch, Paul.

8.6. Excellent. Do you know where you are?

You're in the back of an ambulance at the moment. You had a hypo.

Your sugars have gone a bit low.

Luckily, the problem has been spotted in time.

Within minutes, he starts to come round.

The gym have been on the phone to your wife,

or your wife's been on the phone.

So we've found her. You're going to be in trouble.

-Where are we? Still at the club?

-We're outside the club, yeah.

-I think you've scared them all half to death.

-Oh, God.

-You know the benches in the middle of the changing room?

-Yeah.

-You were out flat on one of those.

-Was I?

-Mm.

Paul's in trouble with his personal trainer as well.

I think you might have overdid it a bit yesterday, as well.

I think I did.

So, what - you had a two-hour session and then you did a weights class.

-Yeah.

-I didn't know about the weights class.

Just to let you know, your wife's on the way.

I gave her a call, she says she's going to get a taxi

-and then pick up the car.

-BLEEP.

His wife's just arrived.

-You've put the fear of...

-Good.

We've given him some glucose, but he needs to have something to eat.

He needs to have something fairly quickly.

-What is your sugar level at the minute?

-Eight point something.

-It's fine.

-But he does need some sort of proper food.

He will have food. And he will sit.

-Proper carbohydrates. Sit down, relax, cup of tea.

-Correct.

We're going to write down that he doesn't have to do the washing up today.

-Really?

-He's stood down on washing up.

That'd be a first.

Thank you very much.

All right. There you go.

Paul's relieved he's feeling more himself

-and is well enough to go home.

-Go home, eat something and rest.

We caught up with Paul at home last week.

I've been a dependent diabetic on insulin for 36 years

and I manage it by injecting myself four times a day.

With his diabetes, there's always a risk

of Paul's blood-sugar levels dropping to a dangerous level.

He has to be careful not to overdo things.

His recent scare at the gym was the second major one he's had.

The first time he had an attack was on a street in Boscombe.

I was walking on my own and I had a severe hypo,

which forced me to sit down

because I'd become very unsteady and unbalanced.

It deteriorated and, unfortunately,

for some time I was left sitting there

because people weren't aware I was a diabetic

and thought that maybe I was a drug addict or alcoholic or something,

until a young lady, apparently, asked me was I OK

and when I muttered something about diabetes,

she immediately calls the paramedics

and they took me to Bournemouth Hospital and brought me round.

That was about the only other time I've had a severe hypo.

Fiona, I wanted to talk to you a little bit

about what happened to Paul there because is it quite common

when somebody has a problem with diabetes they can appear drunk?

Yeah, a lot of them.

They can become very confused and to all intents and purposes

to any passers-by they can look as though they're intoxicated.

And have you got examples of people, sort of, ignoring them?

Oh, yeah - people will regularly walk by,

think that they've just been out on the drink

and just keep walking and don't render assistance.

And it's potentially a very dangerous situation, isn't it?

Very dangerous, yeah. The quicker we can get to a diabetic,

the better the outcome for them.

OK, so if you see somebody who's behaving in an odd manner

a bit like that, how do you know, then, that they are diabetic and what should you be doing?

Obviously, try and find anybody who knows the person,

speak to them, ask them if they know of any conditions they may have.

They may have a Medicalert necklace or bracelet on

and that'll alert passers-by

and medical personnel that the patient has a recognised condition.

So those are obvious signs, and they're quite obvious those bracelets or necklaces, aren't they?

Yeah, they're silver and they say Medicalert on them

and they contain information about the individual and the condition they have.

And I understand as well that their breath smells quite different

to somebody who had been drinking too much, is that right?

It'd be very sweet. Very, very sweet smell.

That's usually when they are in a lot of trouble,

-when you would smell that.

-So if in doubt, we call somebody like you.

Always. Always. Anybody that's down on the ground,

whether you think they're intoxicated or not, you dial 999.

I will do that. Well, thank you, Fiona.

Hello. I tell you what - I'm coming in for a cuddle because I couldn't get Shay off you earlier on.

That little lad whose life you saved. We'll probably end the programme

with those pictures a bit later on. It was such a wonderful story.

-I shall very privileged to have met you today.

-Do you know what?

They said that the only other person he hugs like that is his grandad.

-Aw, bless.

-You've made a friend for life.

-A friend for life.

-That's it from Real Rescues. See you next time.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd