This Is Guernsey

By Cheryl Latter

Herm’s fire team is ready for action. (Picture by Lesley Bailey, 0575479)

TRAINING began this month for the Herm fire team’s newest recruits, Willem van Vuuren and Juliet Waterhouse.

The team is made up of volunteers who work in other year-round jobs in the island. These retained firefighters are official members of the Guernsey Fire and Rescue service and go through the same application process and security checks.

All undergo an initial two-day intensive training course in Guernsey. Once they have joined the team there are monthly training sessions to keep them prepared for any emergency.

‘We had a tour of the fire station in Guernsey and the guys were all really friendly,’ said Juliet. ‘As we were only there for a couple of days they had to condense everything for us, but we learnt how to draw on the ladders and hoses, how to detect fires within a building, and they taught us hand signals. Because we’re just retained firefighters, we really need to know how to keep a fire at bay until the Guernsey fire team arrives.’ Gift shop worker Juliet is the only female on the team and started her training by learning to drive a quad bike, which most of the other recruits use daily as part of their regular jobs.

‘I’m still a bit nervous on a quad bike,’ said Juliet, ‘because it’s not something I do every day. But I have been practising and I think I’ll cope fine if there’s an emergency.’

Although fires are blessedly rare in Herm, they do happen. On one occasion there were two simultaneously and the team had to split up. Because of that, frequent training is important even if it seems unlikely it will be put to use. ‘We train with the Guernsey Fire Service twice a year,’ said fire chief Mel Brown. ‘They are really just refresher courses. And we train on Herm every month.’ There are now nine members in the team.‘We can’t really have fewer than eight in case people are away or ill, so nine is probably the most we’ve ever had. There are also several people who are trained to drive the tractor that pulls the pump, so there is always someone available to do that,’ Mel explained.

The average response time to anywhere in the island (including filling up the water tank) is about 10 minutes. They also use mobile pumps and hydrants, which is the subject of this month’s training day. ‘So far I’ve enjoyed the training,’ said Juliet. ‘It’s nice to be part of a team and to be doing something that might make a difference one day.’