Central Scotland Group Visit of 11 April 2000

Members visited the new Falkirk Fire Station on 11 April 2000 and were given a presentation and tour by Station Officer Duffy.

During the presentation, members were given a comprehensive briefing on the area covered by Falkirk Fire Station, ranging from the town centre to rural areas and including the huge Grangemouth Petro-chemical complex. This means that Falkirk's fire crews have to be able to tackle everything that is likely to reuqire their attendance in addition to incidents involving petro-chemicals. The Grangemough Petro-chemical complex has it's own fire brigade but this is normally assisted by Falkirk fire crews.

Falkirk's fire crews also have to deal with road traffic accidents and the station is sited close to the nearby M9. Due to this requirement, training exercises are held where fire crews parctice cutting injured people out of wrecked vehicles. They normally acquire vehciles from the local scrap merchant for this purpose.

After the presentation, the party was given a tour of the fire station, including the accommodation, multi-gym and canteen areas. In the vehicle bays, demonstrations of breathing apparatus and detailed explanations of the use of some of the equipment carried on a fire engine were given.

The group were also shown the Central Scotland Fire Brigade mobile command unit. This is used when there is a major incident and provides senior officers with an on the spot command and control facility. The vehicle is fully equipped with communications equipment and closed circuit television equipment.

A demonstration was given of how quickly the arial platform could deploy and the opportunity was taken by a number of members to get a view of the fire station from the platform of Falkirk's aerial platform.

Those present would like to record their appreciation to Central Scotland Fire Brigade for allowing the visit, to Station Officer Duffy for hosting the visit and to the members of Green Watch who assisted in the visit and allowed members the chance to watch them in action.

Report by John Fender.