We are very pleased to announce today that Stephen Wharton, Crew Manager at Appleby Fire Station has been awarded The Pride of Britain Award within the Emergency Services Category.

The award is for Stephen’s courageous act when he rescued a 13 year-old boy who was drowning in the River Eden in February 2019.

I’d like to congratulate Stephen for this fantastic achievement and also the entire Appleby crew who also assisted at the incident that day. This was a first-class rescue and the way in which Stephen and the combined efforts of the Appleby crew dealt with a very high-pressured situation was exemplary. It was an act of bravery which is thoroughly deserving of the award.

The Pride of Britain Awards will be broadcast on ITV 1 on 4th November at 8pm.

John Beard, Chief Fire Officer

As you may be aware, I have taken over from Group Manager John Wall as The Fire Fighter Charity Service Promotions Coordinator. The Service would like to thank John for all of his commitment over the years to help raise thousands of pounds for the Charity.

As our next Service fundraising challenge, I would like to start with organising a Countywide Car Wash on the weekend of 13th-14th November (Red Watch days on 13th and White Watch days on 14th), where we will also be offering tyre safety advice to our communities.

Could I please encourage as many Stations as possible to participate in the event and for those Stations to nominate a point of contact to enable me to arrange the appropriate Risk Assessments, Insurance and to provide further details. You can contact me via: paul.milburn@cumbria.gov.uk.

Further promotion of the Countywide Car Wash will follow as soon as we have all details from Stations participating. Thank you.

Paul Milburn, Station Manager

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently conducted an extensive review of water rescue incidents where Fire and Rescue Service incident commanders have committed crew members into water to search for and attempt the rescue and recovery of submerged casualties. Many of the incidents reviewed involved firefighters entering the water without the correct PPE.

Operational discretion has been used to determine the methods of water rescue used for unusual or unforeseeable incidents. HSE now believe this is an outdated concept it is “no longer appropriate for crews to be committed to water” under the guidance of operational discretion.

As with all incidents, Incident commanders must assess the amount of risk firefighters can justifiably be exposed to.  During water incidents considerations such as the length of time the casualty has been under the water, the temperature of the water and the individual circumstances of the rescue should dictate actions.  If survivability is unlikely firefighters should not be put in undue risk. A survivability model has been produced to assist with this decision, it is available in the SOP: Water and Flooding.

For submerged casualties specifically, HSE offer up the following criteria once proper risk assessment has been carried out:

• The rescue crew must be suitably trained and equipped to operate in the environment where the rescue is required.
• PPE should never be removed to conduct a rescue.
• Rescue should be conducted on the surface of the water. If this is not possible, rescues should be attempted by keeping physical contact or using tools designed for water rescue, such as reach tools.

Further information can be found via this link: National Operational Guidance Learning.

Service Support

Here are the latest updates from Women in the Fire Service (WFS) on their upcoming events, programmes and activities:

Podcast - WFS have released their first-ever podcast series - the Future Firefighter Podcast Series for aspiring firefighters. They will be releasing one episode per month up to March 2022. Available on their website here.

Awards - The Women in the Fire Service Awards are back. Open to entries from 1st November 2021 with winners announced in 2022. We’re also looking for sponsors for our individual categories. Details on our website. Thanks for your support last year, we hope you'll nominate and help spread the word.

Newsletter - You can sign up to receive the WFS newsletter here.

Future Firefighter Programme - The third Positive Action Future Firefighter Programme is coming up in January 2022. The programme is open to the public and is designed for people who dream of being a firefighter, but need some help and advice to take the next steps. This free online event is aimed at all genders from underrepresented groups.  Booking opens soon.

Women in the Fire Service

This year National Safeguarding Adults Week 2021 will take place between 15th and 21st November 2021.  This is a time for organisations to come together to raise awareness of safeguarding issues, facilitate conversations and share best safeguarding practice. 

We hope the week of raising awareness will enable more organisations and individuals to feel confident in recognising signs of abuse and neglect, recording and reporting safeguarding concerns.

During the week, Cumbria Safeguarding Adults Board will share daily messages on their social media and themed 5 minute briefings in line with the national themes supported by The Ann Craft Trust. 

In addition, they are offering practitioners the chance to come together virtually to attend a lunch time learning session. You can find out about the sessions here.

Mark Clement, Strategic Fire Service Reform Manager