Arthur's Community Magazine

LONDON FIRE BRIGADE A NEW LIFE AS A FIRE FIGHTER Sweat, long hours of study, tired legs and facing it all side by side with your cohort is what my 11 weeks of training to become a firefighter consisted of. My name’s Conor, I’m a firefighter at Northolt Fire Station and not that long ago I was moving pallets of tiles around a warehouse counting down the days, hours and minutes until I started the journey of becoming a firefighter in one of the largest Fire and rescue services in the world- London Fire Brigade.

I found myself in a group of 13 people; all from different backgrounds, different ages, with diverse skills and over the next 11 weeks, these people would become some of my best friends. Everyone had their own strengths and weakness, and we all worked together to overcome them, forming study groups, trading notes, even drilling our first aid techniques together long after the day had ended. If you’re thinking of joining, trust me, you will need to rely on your team, just like when you’re in the job.

Every week brought on a new challenge, a new topic to be learned, a new process to be understood, a new drill to be practiced. I was entirely drawn in by all of it, learning how to provide life support and immediate emergency medical care, practicing ladder drills in the yard, getting to grips with the life-saving gear that eventually we would come to rely on, and probably the most exciting part of it all assembling all the skills we had learnt in real fire training. Testing ourselves in teams, fighting fires and saving casualties.

If I had to sum up what my experience of training was like, it would be this: Simple, but not easy. Simply show up on time, iron your uniform, take pride in your work, do your studies, give 100% effort, work as a team and provided that you work hard enough for it you will pass. Simple, but not easy.

I joined the London Fire Brigade because like most other firefighters, and other members of the emergency services, I wanted to serve my community. I wanted to dedicate myself to something that meant more to me than just a way to earn a living.

And while serving the community does mean fighting fires, it also means a lot more 34