Page 24 - link magazine

24
First rate fire cover in first year
THE. COMPLETE West Swindon's firemen have just celebrated their first birthday at their permanent home in
ELECTRICAL Westlea. We visited them to talk about the firecover they are giving the area.
SERVICE Until 28 August 1990 when Westlea
fire station went operational, the fire
G. Stevens Electrical crews had been workingoutof Swin-
N.I.C.E.I.C. Approved
don fire station and parking their
Commercial, Industrial engine overnight and at weekends
& Domestic Installations in the Link Centre library garage for
Full inspection & testing the previous 9 months.
After a year, the firemen are
of premises undertaken
pleased with their performance,
Fire/Intruder Alarms partly because the station has only
Specialists just reached full strength of eight-
een firemen, another reason for a
Swindon 870948
celebration.
Sub-officer Andy Hai gleaves said
the crews had willingly gone be-
V yond the call of duty. "Illness, an-
Philip Stone nual leave and waiting for new re-
cruits to arrive from training has
Painter & meant that time-off has been at a Team work needed to put out a wall of flame
premiuni The men have responded from home at night and at week-
Below:The emergency tender (ET)
Decorator with 110% effort to maintain the ends. All the firemen living within based at Westlea carries all the
service as well as volunteering at one mile of the station and the duty necessary gear for different tasks
For a high standard weekends to take the appliances to crew is required to have thefireappli-
of work with fetes and special safety awareness ance out of the station within four
events."
minutes of a home call. They have
references available He stressed that being under never failed to achieve this target.
strength did not mean there had During the last twelve months,
Telephone now for been inadequate fire cover. All shifts the crews have been called to about
aFREE estimate had the required number of firemen 900 incidents, ranging from fighting
on duty. two large factory fires, chemical in-
Westlea is a day-manned facility cidents and mad traffic accidents, to
Tel: 870515 with crews on hand at the station pulling a deer out of a swimming
during the day and ready forcall out pool.
Removing the roof before extricating the casualty

U.. U.. U, ---------
R.T. Farley
i Landscape Gardener 'o
in West Swindon
placing in the national extrication
20 years experience. competition, as we feature on the
0 Turfing, Paving, front page.
4
Fencing, Pergolas, But Andy Hargreaves said the
community should notbecome com-
Planting New placent knowing there is good fire
Gardens, Rockery cover in the area. "Thankfully the
number of domestic fires in west
Construction, Crazy and north Swindon has been low.
Paving etc. But people have to maintain their
vigilance, be safety conscious and
s• Tel: 875174 .
take precautions. I would appeal to
all readers to fit smoke detectors.
They're life savers."
Because it is new and incorporates The ET also allows firemen to work in
new design features, the Westlea contaminated environments
station has had visitors from farand
HELP KEEP THE UNWANTED ELEMENTS OUT! wide including fire officers fromJa-
4 pan, Romania and Sweden. Hoist-
ing the right flag, particularly when
the Romanians were due, proved a
UPVC/ALuMINIuM & HARDWOOD
WINDOW & DOOR REPLACEMENT problem at first until they turned to
the flag library at Burmah Oil.
HOME EXTENDERS & TRADITIONAL STYLE CONSERVATORIES Leadingfireman Clive Hawes said
the station had a young, keen staff.
UPVC MAINTENANCE FREE CLADDING,
FASCIA, SOFFIT AND GUTTERING "We're always looking for new ways
to hone our skills and havedesigned
No
FOR GUARANTEED QUALITY AND VALUE Obligation and developed several pieces of
CALL SECURIGLAZE Quotation equipment to improve techniques."
Cl Advice The Westlea firemen have shown
".(0793)771288
how good they have become in a
short time when they took a high