Neil Whitemore, Dartmouth Firsetation Commander
14 Dartmouth men agree to be on call 84 hours a week to protect us if our homes or businesses go up in smoke. The retained firefighters go through a rigorous training programme covering flooding, car accidents and oil tanker fires. They practice every Wednesday night and our reporter Steph Woolvin went to meet the man in charge.
The first thing I notice when I walk through the door is the big crowd of men mingling in the hallway, waiting to line up for role call – not one woman. “We used to have a female on the team, but we haven’t had any apply in recent years. There’s no reason why women can’t do this job,” says Station Commander Neil Whitemore. He’s keen to stress that women are welcome and that message is a key part of their new recruitment programme; “You need to be fit, able to lift heavy things (even the breathing apparatus is surprisingly weighty) and have stamina and that applies to both sexes,” he says.
The men, who all have day jobs, get going with a lot of lively banter as they prepare for the evening’s training and there is a certainly a sense that this could be the highlight of their week, a chance to let loose and have a bit of fun – ‘boys and their toys’ perhaps. But it soon becomes clear this is a serious past time and no one enters into the role lightly. The men have to agree to be on call for half their week, during which time they have to stay in Dartmouth so they can be at the station within five minutes of their pager going off.
It takes two years on average to be a fully competent firefighter and these volunteers go through the same training as full time firefighters. The intensive courses are in Exeter and Plymouth where they learn the basics - how to use the ladders, pumps etc. They’re not just taught how to deal with house and high-rise flat fires, but also chemical spills, explosions and plane and shipping container fires.
Here in Dartmouth the team is called out two or three times a week and mainly deals with car crashes, chimney fires and river related incidents from boat fires to flooding. Many of the men remember fighting the fire on the African Queen fishing boat and most recently they helped rescue the crew of the sunken French fishing boat. They work closely with the other emergency services and very rarely attend an incident on their own.
All this work is done using two fire engines and now a smaller 4x4 truck – crucial when negotiating Dartmouth’s narrow lanes - it’s often sent ahead to gauge the situation. Neil says the large number of old buildings in the town means there’s a big risk of fire spread, evident in the Fairfax Place blaze when eight businesses and some 15 flats were severely damaged back in 2010.
Neil, a keen Ed Sheeran fan, shows me around the headquarters on College Way. It’s a cosy set up with offices, a gym, showers, meeting room and kitchen (complete with biscuits of course). Weekly training takes two hours and after the initial line up the men knuckle down to whatever scenario has been laid out for them. They make sure it’s as realistic as possible.
They aren’t always on site, sometimes they will train down on the water and generous farmers offer up old barns. This evening it’s a blackout smoke test with a life size real weight dummy to retrieve. “When the men first sign up we make them take turns being a human dummy,” Neil says with a cheeky smile. “It’s not as rotten or dangerous as it sounds. It’s so they put themselves in the casualty’s shoes. When you’re sat in a car with five men in masks cutting bits of metal out around you, you realise how scary being rescued can be.”
Neil, a carer in a local retirement home, has been a retained firefighter for 34 years - over half his life. Both his father and great grandfather also fought fires so he says it was ‘the thing to do’. He’s certainly witnessed a few weird and wonderful call outs in his time; “There was the python on the roof on Victoria Road - that was funny. We put a ladder up and helped the owner onto the roof to coax the thing down. There was no way we were touching it! Then there was the man who had super glued his hand to a phone in a call box, we didn’t ask any questions!”
Then there are some more harrowing tales and Neil’s keen to point out the counselling that’s offered to firefighters who witness a death; “People deal with that sort of thing in different ways, some men just shut down and would rather not talk about it and others try and laugh and move on”. It’s clear in Neil’s voice that he is fond of his team and he tells me he’s very proud of them all.
Over his three decades of service Neil has seen some changes; “There aren’t as many call outs as there used to be, I would say numbers have halved since I joined. I think that’s because of new build houses and better community safety advice in schools. People are generally more pro-active now. We are often called into homes to do a free safety visit where we point out possible hazards and escape routes.” The one thing that hasn’t changed is the need for volunteers and as our interview draws to a close there’s a question for me; “are you going to sign up then?” asks one of the men – half joking, half serious.
With high house prices and few jobs for young people in Dartmouth, Neil tells me many potential recruits are forced to move away to bigger towns; “Any one over 18 can join us as long as they pass the interview, medical and entrance exam. We have landscape gardeners, painters, plumbers and mechanics who all do one thing during the day and save lives in their spare time.” If it’s for you, ring 01392 872294 or visit www.dsfire.gov.uk
First published By The Dart magazine May 2016