Friday 16 March - 09.00hrs 2007
The mayor of Weston-super-Mare swapped her chains of office for
a firefighter’s helmet when she spent a day at the town’s fire
station.
In a bid to find out more about the work of Avon Fire & Rescue
Service (AF&RS), town mayor, Councillor Mrs Paula Howell, asked
to join up with a crew from the Milton Avenue station, where she
was treated like any new recruit during her day with Blue
Watch.
As soon as she arrived she was dressed head-to-toe in protective
equipment before hitting the training yard. Under the guidance of
her more experienced colleagues for the day Mrs Howell took a turn
running out a hose and connecting it to a hydrant before struggling
to hold on as she felt the full force of the powerful jet.
The mayor also watched drills using the specialist hydraulic
spreading and cutting equipment that is carried by AF&RS’s
appliances to release road accident victims trapped in their
vehicles.
Following her morning at the fire station Mrs Howell saw the
fire prevention side of AF&RS’s day-to-day work when she was
given a tour of the on-site Community Safety Centre. She later took
part in visits to Bourneville School for an arson vulnerability
assessment and Safety Zone 2000 on Winsterstoke Road.
Following her day on station Councillor Mrs Howell said: “I feel
that I understand a lot better now the work that goes on behind the
scenes in the fire service and it is so useful to have that
experience to feed back to the council.
“The firefighters I met have so much knowledge and brilliant
personalities too, if you were ever in the position where you had
to be cut out of a car or needed to be rescued, having people like
this around would make you feel so safe and would be such a huge
reassurance.”
Watch Manager Roger Farrant said: “We were delighted to have Mrs
Howell with us for the day and I’m really pleased that she threw
herself into everything we asked of her. I hope she went away with
a good insight into the work we do which is evolving all the time,
particularly with prevention and protection work now among our main
priorities.”
He added: “Of course you don’t have to be the town mayor to be
able to pop into the fire station and Community Safety Centre for a
chat with us about safety advice. We welcome anyone along, or
alternatively you can call us free on 0800 1693 999 to arrange a
free home fire safety visit when we will fit smoke alarms at no
cost and discuss your home safety.”