Local flood predictions expected

A rugby club treasurer described as the "lynchpin" of his community was found dead along with his son today, killed as they tried to pump floodwater out of the club cellar.

Bram Lane and his son Chris, who played for the Tewkesbury Rugby Football Club, are thought to have either been overcome by the fumes from a fuel-powered pump or electrocuted.

The deaths of the pair, discovered by emergency services at 7.50am today, are thought to be the first in Gloucestershire caused by the widespread flooding of the last week, which has left swaths of homes marooned and more than 350,000 without water after the flooding of a local treatment plant.

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Friends said that they were among a dozen people who ventured through the filthy water flooding the rugby club to assess the damage last night. While everyone else went home, Bram, 64, and Chris, who was in his 20s, decided to carry on pumping water from the cellar.

"They all decided they had been there long enough and it was time to go. Bram and his son Chris said they would stay a little bit longer," Mandy Masters, a local resident, said.

"He was just the sort of man who would go down there to sort things out - the club was his life. He was the real lynchpin."

Les Adams, a club member, added that the the pair had wanted to clear up the mess to get it up and running as quickly as possible.

"The problem was in the cellar; that was still flooded. They wanted to get it cleaned out and for the club to get going again." He described Mr Lane senior, who was a founder member, as the "heart and soul of the club".

Bram Lane was a keen rugby player in his youth and stayed on at the club after he finished playing to become heavily involved in its running, Mrs Masters added. "He was a very well known bloke, he had been at the club for donkeys’ years," she said. "He looked after the bar and the social scene and watched the matches."

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service today said that the incident showed how people should take care when attempting to clear out the floodwater.

"My advice would be only to use petrol driven pumps from a position which is in the open air," Terry Standing, Gloucestershire's chief fire officer, said.

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