Looking back: ‘Day Peterborough hospital incinerator caught fire’

Firefighter John Barlow (with moustache) attended a fire in the incinerator room at Peterborough District Hospital in Midland Road, Peterborough in 1988 (left).

Chris was working there as a porter at the time and managed to capture the moment on camera. John said: “I was on night duty with Red Watch and the call came in at about 7.30am.

Someone had put some oily flammable material in with the normal waste, so there was a small explosion and a fierce, concentrated fire. Luckily no one was hurt. I think 25 firefighters attended and we were there until about 9am when the day watch took over.”

John started at Cambridgeshire Fire Service in 1981 and rose through the ranks to station commander.

He still works for the fire service part time in a support role.

He added: “Chris and I often saw each other at road traffic accidents over the years when Chris was working as a paramedic.”

Chris added: “We both recalled when one of John’s colleagues fell from a dinghy and was under water for a quarter of an hour but was successfully resuscitated and he later returned to work. It was a rare but very satisfying outcome to a potentially tragic job.”

John attended some major incidents in the city, including the Fengate explosion in 1989 when one of his colleagues, John Humphries, was killed. The blast, caused by a van carrying explosives and detonators, injured 107 people, 84 of whom needed hospital treatment.

John, who is married with one son, wore his original helmet for the reunion photo, but his yellow plastic trousers were changed as they had melted. He was joined by his former colleagues for the reunion (from left) Watch Commander Steve Peacock, firefighter Rob Woodcock and firefighter Tom Bishop.