Wanted: a few good men and women to put out fires

9:55am Friday 4th July 2008

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DESPERATE fire fighters in Malmesbury are seeking new crew members to keep their vital service alive.

The crew is becoming so understaffed that if new members are not recruited soon there is a danger that Malmesbury could lose out on lifesaving cover.

The recruitment drive has been spurred after it was revealed recently that the Malmesbury fire engine has been forced to respond on occasions with the bare minimum of crew on board.

The firefighters, who all maintain full time jobs ranging from a shop assistant to a landscape gardener, are also finding it difficult to maintain a crew who can drop everything and hurry to help out at potentially life and death situations around the clock.

They are now making an impassioned plea for new members and are keen to hear from men and women from all walks of life who think they can spare some time and give something back to the community.

Watch Manager Wayne Jones, who balances his fire service role with a full time job as an Operations Manager in Swindon, said: "I think it is fair to say that we are very desperate at the moment.

"We currently have 13 fire-fighters but we are in a situation where for the majority of the week we are running on minimum crew.

"It only takes one person to go sick or have a personal crisis and we have no appliances for Malmesbury.

"We can talk to people and ask them what they can offer us, not the other way round."

The crew covers a whole range of incidents from car accidents, to fires, to animal rescues and this year so far they have had 130 call outs.

Recently the fire minister MP Parmjit Dhanda visited the station to talk to crew-members about their desperate staffing situation.

He was also keen to hear about their role as co-responders with the ambulance service.

"Unfortunately the ambulance service is in a position here where they can't respond to everything in the 8 minutes they are set, but we can," said Mr Jones "So if it is in the area we go out as first responders and we have extra training to deal with being first on the scene."

Anyone with an interest in becoming a retained fire fighter will be able to hear about the job first hand at a recruitment evening on July 16 at Malmesbury station.

Mr Jones added: "Whether it's a bored house wife, single mother or a chap in an office job looking for something else to give extra reward we want to hear."