Firefighters tackling blaze at boat-building yard help deliver baby

Firefighters tackling a blaze at a boat-building yard have been praised and reunited with the baby they helped to deliver in a nearby car.

Josh Beardmore had been driving his partner Alice Heale to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, Cornwall, when her labour rapidly progressed.

After realising they would not make it to the hospital, Mr Beardmore remembered there was a fire at a boat-building site in Penryn and pulled over to seek assistance from crews there.

Firefighters from the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, who were dealing with the closing stages of the blaze, immediately went to help.

They moved a fire engine in front of the car to block the view from the road, while firefighter Katie Hoskins took charge of the delivery and her colleague Rosie Tonkin spoke to the ambulance service over the phone.

Baby Olive was born safe and well at 2.36pm on May 16.

She has now been reunited for a special thank you with the crew who helped bring her into the world, along with her parents and brother Teddy, aged two.

Mr Beardmore, a lifeboat volunteer with the RNLI, said: “We were in the car and had just got down the road when Alice said, ‘I’ve got to push, the baby’s coming.’

“I knew about the fire at Cockwells because the road had been closed and I had seen all the news reports. I had been keeping an eye on it in case we had to go a different way to the hospital.

“I knew the fire brigade would more than likely be down there. When the ambulance service told me to pull over I thought, ‘I know exactly where I can go.’

“I waved over at the guys and said, ‘I think I need a bit of a hand here, my missus is having a baby’.”

They were amazing – they dropped everything

Ms Hearle’s waters had broken a couple of days before her due date and so the couple had gone to get checked over at Royal Cornwall Hospital.

They returned home to rest and were booked for an induction at 4pm on May 16. But at about 1pm that day, her labour suddenly progressed and they set off for the hospital.

Describing the response of the fire crews, Mr Beardmore said: “They were amazing. They dropped everything. The two girls were straight in the car and said, ‘You look after Alice and we’ll deal with the baby’.”

Ms Hearle added: “If they were nervous, they didn’t show it at all. They were so comforting and took control of the situation.

“I didn’t have time to be worried. I was just in the zone, I wasn’t really thinking. After about three pushes, the baby was out and she cried straight away so I knew she was OK.”

I am immensely proud of the crews

The couple, along with son Teddy and daughter Olive, went to meet the fire crews and thank them for their help.

Ms Hearle, a mobile hairdresser, said: “It was nice to go back and say thank you and talk about it.

“I wanted to say thank you to them for being so calm and jumping in like they did. One of the guys even noted the exact time that she was born. Little things like that mean a lot.

“It wasn’t the water birth I had planned but I actually feel really proud and positive about the birth.”

Kath Billing, chief fire officer at the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Every day our crews go above and beyond to serve the people of Cornwall.

“I am so pleased that Olive arrived safely and I am immensely proud of the crews that helped with her delivery. They are a testament to the service and their profession.”