UPDATE: Man evacuated due to flooding at Barnstaple property

“Wasn't it great,when all three emergency services could be heard on a scanner radio, as incidents happened.Now that was real LIVE news.”

“Its a fair point Tony, i don't have anything against the fire service, they provide a valuable service and its no fault of theirs that they don't attend as many jobs as the other emergency services (thankfully), but its the way in which the Journal just regurgitates press releases from them into the paper each week without any real journalism occuring, stories aren't followed up, questions aren't asked......we will never know what happened in The Great Flood of Castle Street....maybe they'll make a film about it one day, then the truth will be out!”

“I'm not trying to hog the limelight with my 2+1 comments below.
I kept being told my comments couldn't be loaded. The reason given was double-dutch. Whilst trying to find how to complain, my three attempts to upload what was intended to be one comment were added to the existing comments. There must be a story here.”

“"They left the duty of care with the property's occupier."

It's a bit like the regular "small tools were used". What small tools? Screw drivers, hammers, hack saws? Anything a bit more manly such as a sledge hammer? And what did they do with the tools?

We want to know. Having attracted our attention with a headline, we want something interesting to read.

It was good to know the property was left in the care of the occupier, but why were the Police involved? Couldn't the Police have isolated the water to the flat above? Why was water coming from the flat above? Did a pipe burst whilst the occupier of the top flat was away? Was the Fire Brigade involved in clearing water from the property after the leak was stopped?

Come on Fire Brigade and This is North Devon, there's scope to create a story out of this event, and the many others like it.”

“"They left the duty of care with the property's occupier."

It's a bit like the regular "small tools were used". What small tools? Screw drivers, hammers, hack saws? Anything a bit more manly such as a sledge hammer? And what did they do with the tools?

We want to know. Having attracted our attention with a headline, we want something interesting to read.

It was good to know the property was left in the care of the occupier, but why were the Police involved? Couldn't the Police have isolated the water to the flat above? Why was water coming from the flat above? Did a pipe burst whilst the occupier of the top flat was away? Was the Fire Brigade involved in clearing water from the property after the leak was stopped?

Come on Fire Brigade and This is North Devon, there's scope to create a story out of this event, and the many others like it.”

“What amuses me is the dry comments the Fire Service make about what they did.

"Small tools were used." What small tools? Srewdrivers, hammers, hacksaws? We want to know!

As for "They left the duty of care with the property's occupier", how boring! How come his or her property was flooded, why were the Police involved, why was water coming from the flat above? Did the Firemen give the person in the flat above, instructions on how to prevent his or her water from going downstairs? Or did a pipe burst because of the cold weather whilst the occupier was away?

Come on everybody, there's scope for a novel here. You attracted our attention by a headline, let's have something worth reading. Please!”

“You are right it would interest me how many members of the public ask you? Do you have figures available? Any way missed the only slightly, I was really commenting on the disproportionate number of fire brigade reported stories when compared to the other emergency services and was wondering the reasons behind that? After all the fire brigade is the least used out of the 3? Is it to do with their PR or is it just an easy source of copy???”

“As you can see, this story is on-line, therefore not affecting any rainforests. You may also be interested to know the number of requests we have from members of the public asking to know what is going on when they see a fire engine in their road. This particular incident may be of no interest to you, but it certainly will be to some. Thanks.”

“Why do the fire brigade insist on reporting every single job they do to the media.....even worse why do the media then print it????? If the ambulance service or police adopted the same policy the local papers would use up the rain forest in a month!!!!”