A PONDLIFE disaster at Tavistock College was prevented on Friday night after something fishy was spotted down by the science block. Maintenance caretaker at the college Tim Smith, who also happens to be the Tavistock Fire Station commander, saw all the fish and other pondlife at the surface on the water gasping for air around 4pm. ?Someone had put a lot of reeds in the pond to soak for basket weaving and it turns out that reeds give off an acid,? he said. The sheer amount of the reeds would have given off enough toxic material to cause death. With minutes to spare, Tim rounded up three or four of the fire station?s retained officers who placed the fish into fresh water, pumped out the pond and refilled it: ?The fish were all okay and it was good that we could help,? said Tim. ?It is nice for people to know that the local fire brigade can serve the community in many ways.? Senior science technician Teresa Tyler-Smith said the contents of the pond included dragonfly lava. ?We have about 18 goldfish in there, some are up to a foot long and very pretty,? she said. ?We are really grateful to the fire brigade who came at very short notice.? It is believed that willow had been soaked in the pond before to make it more pliable but this time there was a much larger amount.
