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Question for retained FFs

  • 24-09-2014 2:15am
    #1
    lighterman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 320 ✭✭


    I was at a match recently that my local team were playing at recently and I spotted 2 lads from the fire brigade there. The match was being played in a village about 12 miles or so away from ours.

    I was just wondering how does it actually work in regards of them leaving the town.

    Do they have to inform their station officer or control room

    Does their pager still go off

    Would the lads at the station ready to go wait long on them if they didn't know they were out of town

    Can they just drive to the scene of the incident and report to the station officer there

    Can the station officer and sub officer leave the town at the same time

    Is there a number of lads that are told they have to stay within the town to go to calls


Comments

  • #2
    timmywex
    Registered Users Posts: 2,626 ✭✭✭timmywex


    lighterman wrote: »
    I was at a match recently that my local team were playing at recently and I spotted 2 lads from the fire brigade there. The match was being played in a village about 12 miles or so away from ours.

    I was just wondering how does it actually work in regards of them leaving the town.

    Do they have to inform their station officer or control room

    Does their pager still go off

    Would the lads at the station ready to go wait long on them if they didn't know they were out of town

    Can they just drive to the scene of the incident and report to the station officer there

    Can the station officer and sub officer leave the town at the same time

    Is there a number of lads that are told they have to stay within the town to go to calls

    The lads work on a rota as far as I understand, so it could be a week on call followed by a week off call or something similar. Can't expect someone to always be in such close proximity to the station!


  • #3
    civdef
    Registered Users Posts: 3,057 ✭✭✭civdef


    It's not generally appreciated just how much time retained firefighters have to commit to the job. It's a very demanding role requiring huge sacrifices in terms of freedom to do things or go places away from the fire station vicinity. That said there are systems in place to arrange some time off. In the vast majority of stations it wouldn't be week on / week off though, more like a day or two off per week.
    lighterman wrote: »
    I was at a match recently that my local team were playing at recently and I spotted 2 lads from the fire brigade there. The match was being played in a village about 12 miles or so away from ours.

    I was just wondering how does it actually work in regards of them leaving the town.

    Do they have to inform their station officer or control room
    Normally crew members who are off call organise this with the station officer.

    Does their pager still go off
    Depends on topography, but it might well do.

    Would the lads at the station ready to go wait long on them if they didn't know they were out of town.
    If they didn't know they were out of town (and they would do normally), they'd head out once they had a crew for the appliance (5-6 people).

    Can they just drive to the scene of the incident and report to the station officer there
    No.

    Can the station officer and sub officer leave the town at the same time
    Normally not, in some counties the DM is also trained as an incident commander though.

    Is there a number of lads that are told they have to stay within the town to go to calls
    Yes. For a one pump retained station, normally 7 of the 9 crew have to be available.


  • #4
    lighterman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 320 ✭✭lighterman


    civdef wrote: »
    It's not generally appreciated just how much time retained firefighters have to commit to the job. It's a very demanding role requiring huge sacrifices in terms of freedom to do things or go places away from the fire station vicinity. That said there are systems in place to arrange some time off. In the vast majority of stations it wouldn't be week on / week off though, more like a day or two off per week.

    I understand their commitment and not in any way under estimating it. It just had me working though as we are in a small village and even to do the main weekly shop like tescos etc is at least 30 mins away.


  • #5
    Tintin8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 186 ✭✭Tintin8


    The lads get set days off every week. Some bigger retained stations are week on week off such as newbridge in Kildare.

    If they're due to be on call they can get a off call firefighter to cover them to leave the station area.


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