Not Just Fires
Once upon a time, there was a little known disease that travelled the globe and in the space of a couple of weeks, turned our lives completely upside down. Thousands of people were struck down by this illness, some mildly, some catastrophically. We were ordered not to leave our homes to stop this nasty virus spreading and the world shut down in a way that we have never seen in our history. I mean, even during the war years the country didn’t grind to such a halt! Once the world began to open up, I was contacted by an old school friend who said, “hey Tom! This year we can’t do our normal open day and so instead we’re going to do a virtual one and post videos online. Can you come and help?” My friend here is a firefighter, one of eighteen thousand firefighters in the UK who work on a ‘retained’ basis. This means that whilst they have other jobs, they will drop everything at the sound of a pager, dash to the station and blue light it to a plethora of emergencies. It’s pretty amazing really. One minute you could be at home, maybe asleep or at work and the next you’re rushing off to an emergency that could throw anything at you. This system of working is quite prevalent in our towns, villages and rural areas where call outs are not as frequent as in big urban spaces, hence why firefighters tend to be on-call rather than full time. But, this doesn’t mean that their job is any easier or they have to deal with less serious incidents or they are any less trained then their full time counterparts.
Usually, the fire station would throw open its doors during a local festival we have here in our town called the Folk & Boat Festival. As a public service, engagement is taken very seriously as not only does it showcase the amazing work these people do, without much fanfare, but it also helps with recruitment which in retained stations relies on local people to make a big commitment. But, most importantly, engagement can help to bring awareness as prevention is a massive part of their role. If you can stop an accident taking place, this is surely much better than having the need of a fire crew - though they are here, ready and waiting for if they are needed. Like many different organisations during that time, they had to come up with new and creative ways to promote their work and as a typically unemployed freelancer who has experience of video production, I was only too happy to get involved! In fact, fast forward three years from that time, I asked my friend if I could pop over sometime and do some photography around the station. I remember when he got back to me and said “sure thing,” I was incredibly excited and it made my year in the space of one minute! Call me sad but who wouldn’t when you could gain such access?!
Back in 2020, I was sent a raft of mobile video footage of the team at the fire station training on everything from car roof removal, breathing apparatus searches of smoke filled rooms (this looked pretty cool and it would great to have a go!), ladder climbs and chucking throw lines, though I’m sure during training there is probably a more technical term! I think I ended up editing all the videos in one night, that was my excitement, and they were posted online for the internet to see. I think they did pretty well which was a bonus! One of aspects that you realise very quickly when you see the fire service is that is not just fires that they have to deal with. In fact, you might say that the term ‘firefighter’ is a bit of a misnomer nowadays as they have to prepare, train and deal with so much more, though fires are quite a major part still! Modern fire appliances are equipped with such a mountain of gear so that these teams can deal with fuel spills, hazardous materials, flooding, trapped and hard to access situations, collapses, industrial incidents and even more besides. They can be called to just about anything and using their training, skills and experience - they will assess the situation and respond accordingly. Problem solving is quite a major part of the game.
During my second visit, I was fortunate enough to witness a training exercise in which the crew room had been transformed into a maze of tables and chairs, all covered with a large piece of tarp. What was all this in aid of you ask? Well the situation was that a casualty was medically trapped at the end of this course and it required the firefighters, whilst wearing full breathing apparatus and personal protective equipment (PPE) to crawl through this maze, retrieve the casualty and then enact a rescue. That wasn’t just the end of the exercise as once they were out, they had to perform CPR and other lifesaving interventions on the casualty straight after the rescue. Now, from my perspective as I was wandering around taking pictures, it was incredible to watch. The course was incredibly tight and claustrophobic. The breathing apparatus is heavy, its confining, hot when you’re exerting yourself in such a way and very difficult to communicate in. The physical demands are intense and this was all in broad daylight, with no fire or smoke and no real casualty. It would’ve been fascinating to have experienced it just so you can get a full appreciation of how hard it is and this was all from just one exercise! Phew…
So, I suppose the question is, would you (or me) be able to fill those boots and be a firefighter? Whilst I would love to have a go at these things, in the calmness of a training exercise and without the pressure of the real thing, I’m not sure you’d want me turning up at the darkest part of your life to save the day! One of the big things with firefighting is fitness. You need to have a strong degree of stamina and strength and whilst fire services up and down the country are not expecting Marvel super heroes, you need to have an interest in that sort of thing and I simply don’t. It’s a role that requires a lot of exertion and the ability to do a bit of heavy lifting so for most people its something they have to work towards and keep up through their day-to-day lives. I’d also be gutted because I’d have to lose the beard and I’d probably look about 15 years of age clean shaven! There are retained fire stations up and down the country that are always looking for ordinary people to do amazing things and I think that it’s a lot more open than people would assume. If you wanted to make it happen, it can very much happen and the biggest barrier is making the personal commitment. The training is top notch and if the desire is there, the services will help you to mould all the rest.
Of course, whilst the people are what make the service, you can’t not gloss over the small fact that fire engines are pretty cool! In professional parlance they’re known as ‘appliances’ and they come in all different shapes and sizes to meet different demands. This fire station has two appliances, the main pump and the rapid response vehicle (RRV). The latter being used to get road traffic collisions quickly and has the ability to get into tricky spots on difficult terrain. The bigger fire stations, usually the full-time ones can be equipped with different appliances such as aerial ladder platforms, high volume pumps, environmental response units, command units, technical rescue vehicles, off-road vehicles and rescue boats. It’s like the real life Thunderbirds. One of the difficulties for fire crews around Britain is just getting their appliances to an emergency in the first place. Many of our suburban streets are strangled by parking problems and it’s quite often that I’ll go a housing estate and say, “let’s hope they don’t have a fire because they ain’t gettin’ a fire truck down there!” And if they can’t get a fire truck down the road then they might not get an ambulance down either! So remember, watch where you park!
Firefighting is one of those jobs that attracts interest. I could ask questions about it all day long so if you are a firefighter, please do reach out as I’d be only too happy to come and capture your work and give it a go! It sparks an enormous amount of curiosity and their quite a fraternity of enthusiasts. You go on YouTube and search fire engines responding and you can watch hours of footage of blue light responses by the dedicated fans who stand outside fire stations with their cameras in all weathers! But, modern firefighting is evolving, the risks are changing and therefore, the response has to adapt. These are the people that are running towards the danger whilst we’re all running away from it - and for that, they deserve a little bit of recognition.
Not a real firefighter…
A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO