I have just picked up my teenage son from Kings Road this evening as he returned from a trip to Brownsea Island this morning with Chandler’s Ford Cubs and Beavers.
It turned out to be an eventful day.
My son asked me if I had read the news during the day.
I didn’t.
I was having lunch and coffee with friends in Eastleigh.
When I checked the news, this was what I read:
Cub and Beaver scouts and their leaders set off from Kings Road Scout HQ from Chandler’s Ford this morning. They left at half past eight with the coach company, Wheelers.
The scouts were on two coaches. For some unknown reason, one of the two coaches they were travelling in caught fire on the A31 in the New Forest just after 9am. My son was on this coach.
Chris Brook captured the moment the coach was on fire:
@BBCBreaking Coach on fire at Stoney Cross pic.twitter.com/b2jJauUFxY
— Chris Brook (@CJB246) June 11, 2016
Luckily, everyone on this coach had got out safely, before the coach was gutted by fire. No one was injured.
Delays on #M27 #A31 as Hampshire Fire Fighters deal with Coach Fire near Stoney Cross pic from @CJB246 #HeartNews pic.twitter.com/JHrVwnBhbL
— Heart South News (@HeartSouthNews) June 11, 2016
🚨H52P1🚨@Redbridge53 @HantsPolRoads @SCAS999 Coach fire a31west rufus stone. Excellent hard work by crews. pic.twitter.com/vdSgwJtf14
— Burley Fire Station (@BurleyFire52) June 11, 2016
One lane of the carriageway was closed as firefighters fought the blaze.
Other than this unexpected and dramatic event in the morning, the whole trip was a huge success.
My son told me that on Brownsea Island they saw lots of wildlife, including a deer, wood ants, peacocks, chickens and the Brownsea Island red squirrel.
As a parent, I would like to thank all the Scout leaders for their leadership today. I know the children all had a wonderful time.
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Am glad everyone was all right. Thankfully these things are relatively rare events. And Brownsea Island is a great place to visit.
Would I be excused it I said:
“It gives one a warm glow to know that the scouts had a good day out.”?
Be prepared.
I don’t use the word ‘amazing’ easily, but today’s outcome was truly amazing. Everyone got out of the coach safely minutes before the fire ….. Thanks to the strong leadership of the Scouts leaders, and all the helpers and parents involved.
My son told me incoherently in the car about some ‘explosion’, ‘fire’, and ambulance and police……I didn’t know what he was on about until I read the news.
And full credit to the driver for realising something was wrong and stopping in time to get all the passengers off. How many times have we seen a warning light on the dashboard and carried on thinking “it will go out in a minute” – or is that just me?
I remember being stuck on the M3 at Winchester for two hours in a broken-down coach on a school trip. A teacher, realising that we weren’t going to get to our destination, walked into the town and persuaded a supermarket to give him credit to buy lunch for us – this was in the days before universal credit cards (or when credit limits wouldn’t have been enough to buy lunch for fifty schoolboys!)
I mean Basingstoke, not Winchester. The M3 didn’t reach Winchester in those days. And I can’t remember where we were heading.