The end of the journey.

 

The thing about a journey is, that it has to end at some point.

You can plan a journey as much as you like, but along the way the scenery changes, there are unexpected stops, breakdowns and occasional disasters!

My journey with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, as you may have read the first year of, has been amazing. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, I’ve made the best kind of friends. The tough times have been ‘character building’ and I can take away from it a lot more in the way of life skills, and many happy and hilarious memories.

Why has my journey come to an end so abruptly?

I guess, you could say that I had stupidly double-booked my seat in two carriages!

I was already on one journey, with my main employment, my very own business, Fighting Fit Devon. I have spent nearly 9-years building up my business from nothing, to what it is now.

And when you have something so important, my, first class ticket, you can’t keep changing carriages.

I tried, it didn’t work.

Being on call, there are some jobs that work, even self-employment, sadly, personal training isn’t one of them, unless you only have a small client base.

I will be exiting my DSFRS carriage on Saturday 29^th February, taking with me, great memories, new skills, special friends, and a feeling of pride, that I was part of something important and special, even if it was only for 2 years and 4 months!

I would urge you, if you are reading this blog, considering becoming an on call firefighter, that you think about all aspects and make sure you get your priorities right. I know that I took a gamble, and sadly it didn’t pay off.

Good luck all.

Happy Firefighting!

House Fires.

We spend a lot of time training for pretty much every fire and rescue eventuality as you have read so far. The one thing you spend a lot of time on is house fires. Up and to this point, I hadn't been to one. I had been to many burnt dinners, but nothing more inside a dwelling.

The first thing you want on your first house fire when in development, is a former Breathing Apparatus (BA) instructor with you – check.

Yes, I was wearing BA with my boss,  Roger Williams on this particular occasion. Let me set the scene.

I was at home, thinking of an early night with a new book, casually moisturising my face and cleaning my teeth before bed, the beeper goes off. Off I pedal to the station, and find out when we get in that it's a house fire, persons reported. This is not just my first house fire, but also my first persons reported. This is the big deal, the thing we spend all that time training for.

There is a lot more pressure on you at that point, and I was trying very hard to not get into a flap about it, this was the time to calm down, methodically do everything I know how to do.

Putting the sets on with Roger he was very good at calming me down, telling me just to do things normally, we were the first on scene, the smoke was billowing out of the building, it was really going.

Roger asked me to grab the thermal image camera (TIC) and we headed around the corner, Roger in charge of the water, and we luckily heard that the three residents had made it out of the building and were waiting for the ambulance crew to arrive.

Flames were licking out at us from a blown out window, Roger used water on this from the outside, calming it down, we then entered the building.

This was when I got to see a true professional at work. The whole operation was textbook from Roger, with very little water being used, the fire was under control in what seemed like minutes. It's times like that when you actually really respect the knowledge and experience of firefighters who have been doing it their whole career, I learnt a lot that night just by watching.

Two more BA wearers joined us inside the building, I went around with the TIC, then ended up on a double extension ladder in the middle of the house cooling down beams. We eventually ran out of air from our BA cylinders and had to leave the building, leaving   the other two BA wearers in there to finish cooling hot spots and making sure that the place was safe.

It was a long night, there had to be an investigation into how the fire started, and we also had to wait for a window company to come out and board up the premises. There is a lot more to a job than just squirting a bit of water.

Back at the station we serviced our BA sets, put our kit in the laundry and eventually I made it from the shower and into bed by around 3am!

As you can tell by my blog, not every night on call is like this, you can have weeks where you get a good night sleep, and then you usually get three in a row of wake-ups, but that's what you sign up for. This is why I am writing this blog, for anyone wanting to join, that doesn't know quite the extent of how it changes your life. It changed mine for the better, so keep reading, there's more to come during my development.

'Local place for local people!'

 

One of the big differences with being an ‘on call’ firefighter rather than a ‘wholetime’ firefighter is that mostly you are a firefighter in your own town. The town you live, or work, or both, so you know a lot of people, some more than others.

I didn’t grow up in Totnes, I used to live in Surrey until 15 years ago, so all the people I know are through my work in the town, training people in fitness at the leisure centre and at my gym. Some of the crew are Totnes born and bred and know literally everyone!

With this in mind there will be shouts where you know the people involved whether directly or indirectly, and some circumstances a lot worse than others. It’s always something that could happen. The particular shout I want to talk about is a road traffic collision (RTC) on a dark, wet November night last year.

The weather was pretty much as it has been of late, relentless rain and cold. The roads were water-logged and the puddles were lake-like even on the main roads.

I’d just gone to bed and was reading when the beeper went off, the usual race to the station on my push-bike in the most horrific of weather. I think a lot of us try and guess what we are going to, and usually in weather like that you automatically think, RTC. And I was right on this occasion.

It was only my second RTC and Harvey was also on this shout, I think it was his first or second.

Arriving at the scene there was one car, facing the wrong way on one side of the road, not far from a huge puddle.

Me and Harvey stabilised the car, the driver was conscious and seemingly unhurt at this point, but I was told to get into the car to keep her head still just in case of any injuries, before the paramedics arrived.

I introduced myself as I got in and held the young woman’s head still, she said, ‘I know who you are, you used to teach me kickboxing!’ I then realised that this young woman was once a much younger girl who attended my classes when I took them at the local sports centre. She used to come along with her Dad. I kept her head still, but we chatted until the paramedic took over, I think the fact that she knew me made it a little less scary a situation for her. I saw her a few weeks later, she had a new car and was just about to start driving again.

Now, here’s the thing, anyone thinking about joining a fire and rescue service in an ‘on call’ capacity, that could have been very different. That could be your best friend, your Mum, your sister, and the outcome may not have been as rosy as the one Olivia had. It’s something you would certainly need to consider…..imagine rescuing your local dentist or GP in the middle of the night from their house in just their underpants?! Could be quite a sight!

The funny side..........

Following on from my last blog, I felt we needed a light-hearted ‘lift.’

In the time that I have been in the fire service, I have noticed that the time I spend with the rest of the crew, compared with time in my every day life, is more funny!

I’m an old-school diary-keeper, I always have been, and when I write a few lines every night I notice the word ‘laugh’ particularly on drill nights and shouts. I’m not saying that someone else’s emergency is funny, but the humour after a shout (obviously depending on the nature of it) is evident.

In fact, I can honestly say that joining the fire service was definitely a decision to make me happier.

There is a certain type of humour within the team, a lot of innuendo, and that suits me down to the ground. I’ve always been a ‘Carry On’ fan, and I think sometimes I’m worse than the others. It just fits nicely……

So, talking about this I have to mention one incident that happened, it was one of those that just tickled me. No one was hurt, the person involved suffered mild distress for a short period of time, but it has stayed in my head as the most amusing shout to date. It was a lift rescue.

We were called to a property in the early hours of the morning. Four of us entered the building, and we stood outside the lift door. We had already investigated the lift workings and as we stood outside the door, someone suggested that we may try the lift button….just in case?

The lift button was pressed, the doors opened, and the distressed occupant was able to leave the compartment.

Now, maybe you had to be there, and obviously no one laughed at the time, but I can still have a giggle now, that four firefighters rescued someone in the middle of the night, by pressing one button!

It just goes to show, as I said right at the beginning, and what was drilled into us at recruits course, ‘Focus on the basics!’

Keep smiling and laughing, it really does help!

Defusing and support within the Fire Service

With any job in the emergency services, there is a chance that you are going to see, feel, smell or witness events and situations of a traumatic nature, that will challenge you personally, and until it happens, you really don’t know how you are going to deal with it.

Some people go through their service without witnessing anything, they are lucky, but others may see many things in their time with the Fire Service, and luckily, at Devon and Somerset, they are well-equipped with regards to defusing and counselling for any such incidents.

In fact, just last year, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) gained a new employee, by the name of ‘Digby’ who was brought in as a therapy dog. He looks like a great cuddly fluffy comforter, I never want to be in the position to meet him operationally, but he does seem a great idea, if you like dogs of course!

So, last year, I was with Harvey, both of us fairly new at Totnes, both ready to wear breathing apparatus (BA) at a shout early one morning. Obviously I cannot give too much detail on the incident, but sadly we both witnessed a victim of smoke inhalation who could not be brought back to life. We carried the casualty out of the building, both knowing that she had passed away a long time before.

We completed our job on site that morning, put away kit, got back to the station and cleaned our BA sets in silence.

By the time we had finished this, the kettle was on and there was someone on site to take us through the defusing procedure. I say procedure, it was a sit down chat to go through openly the events of the morning and how we felt about it. There was occasional dark humour, but I found the whole experience invaluable for my mental well-being going forwards.

It doesn’t end here though.

I did cancel a couple of clients that morning. I drank tea and watched awful daytime tv, cuddled on the sofa covered in my three dogs for a few hours. Dogs are a comfort, and mine seemed to know there was something not quite right with me that day.

A few hours later I was at work and then onto drill night at the station.

When I got to the station that night there was so much support from the rest of the crew, asking how we were, and saying that it’s okay to not be okay about it. I wasn’t okay, but I knew that I could talk to everyone there about it, and eventually the trauma could be processed and I could move on. Talking about what happened, to others, and Harvey, is what helped the most.

I had a few nightmares, but eventually it passed, the scars remain in the background, as you would expect, I’m only human, but the way DSFRS handle situations like this, is second to none.

It’s not something that happens every day, so if you are unsure of how you would cope with this aspect of the job, talk to your local Firefighters, ask them, before deciding if it’s the right career for you, but I certainly wouldn’t see it stopping me doing my job going forward.

Road Traffic Collision (RTC)

After months of training in RTC I finally had my first shout to one.

There are so many makes and models of vehicles, and different ways in which traffic can collide, it’s very difficult to train for all eventualities!

When we got to the location of the RTC, we saw that the driver of the vehicle had collided with a solid garden wall. Unfortunately the driver had fallen ill, and we joined colleagues from the other emergency services, Police and Paramedics to assist in extricating the driver from the vehicle.

The car was positioned precariously over the edge of a small drop, so we set about chocking the car and using the broken wall to stabilise the front wheel, so that we could eventually move the car back onto the road to safety.

The driver was extricated from the car and taken away by paramedics for treatment, leaving us with the task of making the vehicle, and wall, safe.

Luckily we had Simon and Mark there, two great builders it seems, and they managed to build the wall up enough under the car for us to move it safely into the road.

All skills are valuable in The Fire Service, some are skilled in vehicle maintenance, building, climbing, all valuable to the job. I’m not sure what my useful skill is yet, maybe just being fit and small, you never know, I could come in useful one day!

Confined space.

Last (hot) July, me and Harvey attended another one day course in confined space. The course was held at Headquarters and, it is as it sounds, small spaces, big people!

When we got there, I was pleased to see Dan aka ‘Danielle’ who I did all my initial courses with. It’s always good to see friends again, and Dan is just amazingly funny, so I knew that the day wouldn’t drag.

It wasn’t going to do that anyway, there was so much to cover in a short space of time that our brains were full of information in the first hour.

There were some amusing times during the day, mainly being attached to Dan being pulled underneath the classroom tables! I am not joking, of all the people to pair up for this.

There were also some tough times for some, not everyone is at home in small spaces, and the bigger you are, the worse it is.

The infamous ‘smartie tube’ was a worry to some, it’s basically a small plastic buried pipe that you have to crawl through wearing Breathing Apparatus (BA) to get to another small area where we practiced the ‘entrapment procedure.’

I didn’t have any issues in the smartie tube as I am quite small, and thankful for it too, as it is dark, and as the course says – confined! If you have issues with small spaces and the dark, it’s maybe a good idea to get used to those environments a little before doing this course, but as usual, we are a team, and anyone who had any worries was comforted by the rest of us, encouraged and helped where necessary. The Fire Service is all about Team Work, you are never on your own.

Once in the entrapment area, we were timed as to how long our air would last in an emergency situation. Bearing in mind, we weren’t really in trouble, so keeping our breathing steady and remaining calm wasn’t difficult. I can imagine in a real situation, our air wouldn’t last half as long. Seems my breathing techniques and self-hypnosis paid off and I managed to conserve a lot more air than most. But, as I said in a different situation….who knows?!

I’m not going to write too much about the next part of the course, I want those who are reading this, ahead of joining, to experience the surprise, but as challenging as the afternoon was, it was also really good. Another fine course from the Academy, superb trainers and a lot more learnt to add to the repertoire. Fire and Rescue, so much to learn, it’s not all about squirting water you know!