I'd just nodded off on the settee when my alerter gave me a rude awakening.

Over at the station I was first in, arriving just as White Watch were climbing aboard the PRT.

I looked at the tip sheet to see we were heading to reports of petrol on road with the location given as the road between Oulton and Hopton. This is a tad vague but we assumed this would mean the road past Park Hill Hotel.

Even as we were getting our fire kit on the bells went again. The incident was now an RTC with persons trapped. I was driving Ladder 1 with Dennis Newton as OIC and Andy 'Cheesey' Armes, Howard Clarke and Ben Horne in the back.

The section of road between Oulton Village and the Blundeston roundabout was closed by the Police and we headed past Park Hill to find the incident located in the dip on the Great Yarmouth side of the hotel.

I fended off with Ladder 1 as the guys started ferrying kit up to the RTC.

They were confronted by two cars about 10 metres apart, both at right angles to the road. White Watch were working on a Corsa, suggesting that the casualty needing most assistance was in that car. Our crews started to set up the cutting gear for the Omega estate but were able to free the driver with minimal effort as he was only lightly trapped. In fact he was able to hobble to the ambulance himself! Very lucky, especially when you see the amount of space his lower legs had been compressed in to.

All the focus then shifted to the continuing efforts to release the young male driver from the Corsa. He was heavily trapped and it took quite some time to free him and extricate him on a spinal board to the ambulance.

Amongst all this was Mel, not as part of one of our crews but he arrived at the scene shortly after it had happened. Bit daunting being faced with a full blown RTC but with no gear, no backup and some motorists intent on weaving their way through the whole shebang!

Gear was made up and our crew got the short straw of providing scene lighting to allow the Police crash investigators to carry out their survey. This involves numerous measurements, photographs and satellite mapping of the scene. This is detailed stuff and seems to take ages - no, it did take ages!

The temperature was dropping as we were joined by the recovery crew from Hammonds of Halesworth and the council guys, there to clear the debris from the road.

To warm us up, Ben filled the kettle from the main tank and made hot drinks for all those happy to risk it!

We finally got back on station at around 1.30am this morning...

A big thank you to Karen... Those of you who know us will understand that she had to wait patiently till I got back before she could get to bed. Not one grumble, not one gripe just concerned that I was OK.

Everyone is familiar with the saying, "They couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!"

Well, tonight proved the point beyond doubt.

But before I lose the plot let me take you back a few weeks...

I don't get to check my Fire Service e-mails very often - maybe once a week, on Drill Night. To my surprise I had received an e-mail, not actually addressed to me, just CC'ed, talking about a mini-CMMI course that was being planned and here was a list of people who might be suitable. And yes, my name was amongst the chosen few.

No one actually asked me if I wanted to do it or indeed suggested why I should do it. But this is Suffolk Fire and Rescue and communication isn't one of its big strengths. Telepathy and second-guessing are the normal methods used.

Perhaps I should explain what a mini-CMMI actually is. Well, CMMI stands for Crew Manager, Managing Incidents (please note the use of Manager and a derivative of this word, Managing). Before a firefighter can take a pump out on a shout as OIC (Officer in Charge) they must have passed a CMMI course. This is a five day course, run at Normanshurst, that puts the candidates through many different scenarios both paper-based and in the drill yard. If you are successful you can be in charge of a pump.

Unfortunately, there isn't always a high pass rate and a number of stations are having problems getting pumps out because there are no JO's (Junior Officers) or CMMI trained firefighters.

So, as always, the answer seems to be to move the goalposts. Run three 2 hour sessions, culminating in a drill, and, if you pass, you can go in charge of a pump, as a last resort.

But what constitutes "a last resort"? Who decides that we have reached the last resort? Is it down to the mini-CMMI trained firefighter? Does he or she ring control to get the necessary clearance from them? What if things go tits up? Will the hapless mini-CMMI'ed firefighter get the full support of his superiors and the Fire Service?

Lots of questions and I still haven't got round to the whole point of this blog entry... Stay with it, I will get to the point.

Last night, just before Drill, I checked my e-mails and there was nothing of any great interest. Just an invitation to Chat with the Chief but that isn't high on my list of things to do on a Thursday lunchtime!

Tonight I left home in plenty of time for the drive to Beccles for the first two hour session of the mini-CMMI. Paul Henderson of Red Watch at Normanshurst (representing Clifton Road) was already there when I arrived and we went in a started to chat about the efficacy of the mini-CMMI. Times flies and the awful realisation dawns that no one else is going to arrive.

We tried ringing some of the Beccles guys who were meant to be on this course, tracking one of them down to the real CMMI course in progress at Normanshurst. Then I rang Tim Bray, the Sub Officer at Beccles, only to be told that he had received an e-mail a few days back to say that the course had been postponed until October.

Hmm, now we have Paul fully exercising his entire vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon swear words and me doing a half decent impression of a pissed off Victor Meldrew - "I don't believe it!"

Somehow the message had managed (there's that word again) to make its way down the chain of command to everyone except myself and Paul. We've received all the other e-mails about this stop-gap, finger in the dyke ( the little Dutch boy that is, not the porno film) scheme but not one to tell us that it was off!

I can certainly think of plenty of better things to do with my Wednesday evening than have a fruitless drive over to Beccles and then spend the rest of the evening bashing frantically on the keyboard writing this blog entry! I could have cut my toe nails, emptied out my belly button fluff or, quite simply, just vegged out in front of the box.

Right now, I really can't be arsed to join in the fun when the course finally gets off the ground in October. But if I change my mind, you'll be the first to read all about it, right here...

Nighty, nighty...