Having only been needed as an instructor on the first day of the Firebreak course in Beccles, I was eager to get along to the passing out parade on Friday afternoon to see how the week had gone.

I had been impressed on Monday by the effort and will to learn displayed by the students.

And what I witnessed in their final drills was fantastic. They did themseleves proud - drilling as a team, barking out the orders, heads held high and chests puffed out.

As their guests arrived the youngsters greeted them, showed them to their seats and waited nervously for the proceedings to start.

A few words of introduction from the acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer and then each student was introduced. They ran on to the drill yard followed by the instructors. The squad was then split into two crews with the first crew doing a ladder drill to rescue a baby from the first floor of the drill tower.

The drill went smoothly, everything was made up and the crew fell in to be greeted by a round of applause from the invited guests and instructors.

The second crew ran out two lines of 45 consisting of two lengths each, connected to the hydrant. They then got water on and choreographed their branchs resulting in a bright rainbow effect in the spray. Again, this crew were rewarded by sustained and deserved applause.

To round off the drill section of the passing out parade, both crews joined to carry out a combined drill.

The ladder crew had to rescue Mel Buck (christened Melanie for the purposes of the drill - he was wearing a fetching blue dress - and on a weekday instead of the normal weekend outing) from the tower while the remainder of the crew started setting up a dam. They then filled the dam from the hydrant, set the LPP (Light Portable Pump) into the dam and got two lines of 45 to work from the LPP. With very little assistance from the instructors, everything ran according to plan.

It was an impressive drill especially getting an LPP to work. I don't think an LPP is anyones favourite bit of kit but the young lad tasked as pump operator made it look simple!

With everything made up and the applause still ringing in their ears, the students received their course portfolio from Joanna Spicer and the Dep. The 'Most Improved Student' was then presented with a certificate and shield.

The guests, students and instructors then made their way inside for refreshments and a chance to mingle and chat.

And so, on its first visit to Waveney, Firebreak was a resounding success. With any luck it won't be too long before the course is run in this neck of the woods again.

With any luck the course will have a lasting effect on the students and set them up well for the coming years as they make their way into adulthood...

– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)

Is it me?

Does the management style of Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service follow the 'one size fits all' approach?

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, managing retained firefighters has to be done with a 'light hand on the tiller' approach. We all know and respect that there have to be rules and regulations in the fire service but the very nature of the job that retained firefighters do necessitates a certain degree of flexibility.

So what's brought on this rant?

Well, a set of circumstances arose recently which has called into question the time it takes to respond to the fire station in the event of our alerters going off.

There is a Suffolk ruling that you can only sign the book if you arrive within five minutes of the pump turning out. Local variations can come into play too. These local variations should take into account any number of factors which affect the operational capacity of that particular fire station.

At Normanshurst we have numerous external factors, out of our control, which can severely affect the time it takes to get to the fire station. Perhaps the biggest problem we face is simply the geography of Lowestoft - something that the good folks in Ipswich have never fully understood. The town is split in two by a river with just two crossing points. At any time of the day long queues can develop because of a bridge going up or due to the numerous times the railway line gates get closed in Oulton Broad.

To my knowledge, all of us make the best effort we can to get to the fire station within the allotted time. By merely making the decision to respond to our alerters we have shown our commitment.

You can be literally within site of the fire station, maybe under a mile away, yet the journey can take 15 minutes or more. At an outlying station that mile can be covered in barely two minutes - so the five minute rule presents no problem.

The five minute rule was ostensibly brought in to deal with an outlying station where some firefighters were deliberately hanging back until the pump had mobilised before nipping in, signing the book and sloping off. Once this problem had been highlighted it should have been dealt with locally and, I believe, it eventually was. But the upshot is that we all now have this five minute rule to deal with.

I've already mentioned the special geography of Lowestoft but we mustn't forget that Normanshurst is still a multi-pump fire station.

When my alerter goes off I may be at work, at home or just over the river at a DIY store. I decide to respond not knowing what type of incident I'm going to attend. The possibilities are endless. It could be a standby or we could need to get two pumps out, backing up the Watch, to a persons reported incident. That's part of the reason we do this job - the unknown. And because of the unknown and because our alerters don't double as crystal balls, we make the same effort to respond each and every time that alerter goes off.

Heaven forbid that we get into the situation where one of us thinks that, because they will miss the five minute deadline, that they just won't bother turning in. That one person can be the difference between a pump mobilising or not.

But, in effect, that's what we are being pushed towards. The local variation for Normanshurst is, if we think we'll miss the five minutes, to phone one of the JO's and see if they still want us to attend. We can't use a mobile whilst driving so will need to pull over and turn the engine off. Then we have to make up to three phone calls to reach a JO who can then make a decision on whether we should attend or not.

In the time it has taken to do all that you could probably have got to the fire station. If you can speak to a JO and they do want you to attend, a couple of minutes has been wasted, possibly delaying the turnout of a pump.

The whole system seems unwieldy and prone to failure.

If any individual has been abusing the old system, then they should be taken to task on it and, if warranted, disciplinary procedures started. But that very rarely happens. It seems that none of the line managers want to 'grasp the nettle' and HR don't want to get involved either.

So, we all get tarred by the same brush. Retained firefighters at Normanshurst that have given many years service are far from happy. To them this calls into question their commitment now and, indeed, their commitment over all these years.

Surely the most effective method of implementing 'management controls' would be to get the firefighters onside instead of reading the Riot Act to them. By using full on, almost confrontational management, you alienate the very people you want to manage. If, instead of the Riot Act, we had been reminded of the requirements of the fire service and that a degree of flexibility and common sense should prevail, the job would have been done. Again, if any individual was taking the piss, they should have been dealt with through the normal channels and not by taking all of us to task.

Rumour has it that, once upon a time, this blog was read by people in high places (4th floor of Endeavour House I think...). Time will tell whether this little missive makes it to the top or that I'm called in for a chat...

Night, night...

– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)