Interview with a Bomb Disposal Expert: Meet the man who saved Trowbridge Town!

Should you cut the red wire or the blue wire? Quick! Time is running out! Red digits are already counting down from 10 seconds. With wire-cutters tentatively poised, a snip of the red wire and then…

Wait! Is bomb disposal really anything like what we see in the movies?

A few days ago, I wrote about the Trowbridge bomb scare. It was a pretty exciting event for us simple Wiltshire-folk. The centre of town was ‘locked-down’: All pedestrians and cars were diverted away by anxious-looking police officers. Meanwhile ambulances, fire engines and a bomb disposal team swarmed around The Shires Shopping Centre.

Trowbridge Police fight to keep control (photo: Wiltshire Times)

No-one came to harm and it was later discovered that the abandoned suitcase contained nothing more than a hat and a sock! But not quite everyone was relieved: One unimpressed Melksham resident asked “Was it really necessary to re-open the Shires?!”

Clearly, my high quality reporting of the event did not go unnoticed: Rikki, a Bomb Disposal Engineer from the Royal Logistics Corps who was there that fateful day had read my blog post and decided to get in touch. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass by to get the low-down on real-life bomb disposal, Rikki was kind enough to answer some of my questions:

How do you deal with the pressure?

What is modern-day bomb disposal all about?

How does it feel to have helped save both Trowbridge’s ‘Poundland’ and ‘Greggs’!?… Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking News: Bomb Threat to Trowbridge, Wiltshire!

Trowbridge locals look on in disbelief - "Why can't I get to Poundland!"...

Trowbridge doesn’t seem like a likely target for terrorists. But yesterday, the centre of the town became ‘locked down’ as bomb disposal squads investigated a ‘suspect bag’.

I like the place, but a lot of people don’t. It’s the official county town of Wiltshire, a beautiful and historic region, yet Charles Moore from The Spectator described Trowbridge as a town lacking any “sign of talent, originality, workmanship, beauty or local pride”. He said the locals are “tattooed people shuffling round”. Even former front man of The Stranglers wrote a disparaging (but rather amusing) song “Don’t put me on a slow boat to Trowbridge”.

So it was with some surprise that yesterday, my afternoon shuffle to Asda was rudely interrupted by a police cordon and bomb disposal squad Read the rest of this entry »