Page 29 - link magazine

See us on the net @ www.i-way.co.uk/—swindonlink The Link Magazine • February 1998 29
Busy times preparing for emergencies

Sub-officer Martin Lloyd from Westlea Fire Station describes The Swindon Well Woman
how local firefighters keep themselves fit and ready for the next call out Centre charity shop in
Victoria Road, Old Town
Westlea Station covers West and North Swindon across to Stratton and responds to calls to assist
other fire crews in the town when required. Last month I noted some important fire safety WANTED NOW!
information for the home. Since then we have been very quiet. So this begs the question, what do
Donations of good quality
we do to keep us ready for action?
clean clothes, bric-a-brac
Here's an average day 17.15 - 18.00 Final clean up of the So, there you have it, a day with- and unwanted gifts
day. We make sure all the kit is out any shouts. If you bear in Volunteers to help run the
08.30 Parade. For those of you
clean and tidy, ready for the pa- mind we received over a thousand shop. Do you have a few
familier with TVs London's Burn- rade the following morning and calls last year, and that the Swin-
ing, it's similar to that with each that all appliances are clean and don area had nearly 5,000 calls, a hours to spare?
watch parading in fire kit and each ready for use at the next call out. day without any is very rare. Call Ann Davis on 511064
member of the watch being de- with offers.
tailed his/her position on the fire Martin Lloyd providing instruction
engine. After parade, checks are to a Westlea firefighter
completed on equipment, making
sure that the breathing apparatus
sets are safe to use and the drivers
do a thorough check on their ap-
pliances.
09.00 - 10.00 Physical training.
Most full-time stations have gym
equipment and some sort of com-
pulsory physical activity takes
place every day.
10.00- 11.00 Training period. This
time is allocated to training the
watch to complete fire firefighting
tasks. This can be with the pump,
ladders, breathing apparatus, haz-
ardous chemical procedure, road
traffic extrication procedures, etc.
11.00 - 11.15 Tea break.
11.15- 13.00 Station routines. This
includes cleaning and testing
equipment. All of our equipment
has to be in good working order
and tested regularly. We can't af-
ford to find kit does not work when
we need it most.
13.00-14.00 Lunch break. You can
be sure that if we've had a quiet
morning, as soon as we sit down to
eat there's a shout.
14.00 - 15.00 Visits to buildings in
the locality. We are required un-
der the 1947 Fire Services Act to
make ourselves familiar with
premises in our area in case of fire,
so we regularly visit hotels, indus-
trial premises, hospitals, in fact
anywhere there is a life risk.
15.00 - 17.15 At this time you'll
find firefighters in the lecture room
where there are volumes of what
we call operational notes.
There is a written procedure for
almost every event, whether it's a
crashed military aircraft, a spill-
age involving a dangerous chemi-
cals, an incident with high voltage
electricity or a multi-storey high
rise fire, to name just a few sce-
narios.
We obviously don't have the op-
portunity to stop and have a quick
read when we are called out, so we
need to make sure we know all the
information beforehand.