Urgent fire call (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Urgent fire call

5:11pm Friday 4th July 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share

MALMESBURY could lose vital fire cover if new retained firefighters are not recruited.

The stark warning came as it was revealed that the town's fire engine has had to respond recently with the bare minimum of crew aboard.

It has been called out more than 100 times so far this year, but on some occasions has carried just four firefighters.

Watch manager Wayne Jones said: "The existing crew are doing everything within their power to maintain cover."

But he warned: "If fewer than four people are available then we are not able to respond to emergency calls."

That means time lost while appliances travel from other areas like Chippenham, Tetbury, and Cirencester.

For the past six years a small band of dedicated part-timers has sacrificed family life ensuring town's fire engine is ready each day to react to fires, crashes or medical emergencies.

The difficulty is covering key hours every day. "We all have jobs elsewhere and we provide cover for different hours depending on where we are," explained Wayne, an operations manager. A landscape gardener, shop assistants and an airport fireman are also among the 13 members.

The station's six year record was " a major, major achievement by my crew and they have made sacrifices to do it. What we are now saying is that it has got increasingly difficult to do that and keep a work and social life balance."

He added: "A fire fighter is not about being massively strong. It is about being prepared to drop everything at short notice and give something back to the community."

The crew's plea for help was given high level backing by chief fire officer Andy Goves and fire service minister Parmjit Dhanda, whose Gloucester constituency was helped during the floods by Wiltshire crews.

On a visit to the station last week Mr Dhanda, said there was huge reliance on retained firefighters in rural areas and they were valued members of the community.

He is looking into a scheme similar to the Investors in People programme and urged employers to look on staff who took on such duties as an asset.

"In terms of corporate social responsibility these employers are a great example to the rest of us."

Malmesbury mayor Andrew Woodcock was deeply worried and pledged to do what he could to boost recruitment. "Malmesbury has got about 5,500 people. There must be plenty of fit and able men and women of a suitable age," he said. "As with so many things in the town it is a case of getting people to volunteer.

"There is a tendency nowadays among employers not to make people so readily available. That is a real problem in so many rural areas."

Mr Goves pointed to the gas explosion in the Horsefair, where the Malmesbury crew was on the scene in minutes and worked for hours.

"Over 60% of all firefighters in Wiltshire are retained," he said. "We could not provide the service that we do without them and the support of their employers and their families, and they are constantly a focal point in their community."

*The station is holding a recruitment night on July 16 at 7pm.

• Print
• Email
• Share