Activity Report - Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service ...

C H I E F ’ S A C T I V I T Y R E P O R T A P R - J U N 2 0 1 2
T R A I N I N G A N D D E V E L O P M E N T
FIREFIGHTER EXPERIENCE DAY RAISES
MONEY FOR CHARITY
FOUR ladies swapped glamour for graft when
they took part in a firefighters’ experience day
for charity.
Co-operative workers Siobhan Hayes, Lisa
Twemlow, Julie Darlington and Lisa Hicks won
by Co-operative worker Loretta Dean and
held at the Park Inn hotel in Manchester.
Loretta organised the event after being
inspired by her friend Bradley Middlehurst
from Stalybridge who suffers from Motor
Neurone disease and GMFRS Station
Manager Paul Etches offered to host a
firefighters’ experience day to support the
cause.
In total the event raised more than £8,000 for
the charity which will fund specialist
treatment.
EXERCISE SWAN
THE largest exercise in GMFRS’s history took
place on Sunday, April 29, with up to 25
crews taking part.
The idea was to test the service’s resilience
and capability, while at the same time
maintaining operational response across the
county, and Exercise Swan proved
successful.
FIREFIGHtEREXPERIENCEDAyRAISESMONEyFORCHARIty
the prize at an auction to raise money for
Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton.
They spent a rainy day at Greater Manchester
Fire and Rescue Service’s Training and
Development Centre (TDC) in June where
they were given a tour of the centre’s facilities
and Manchester Central Fire Station which is
next door.
They were shown around the fire engines and
equipment before donning protective clothing
to take part in various training exercises
including squirting water, running out hose
reels, climbing ladders and cutting up a car –
all aspects of being a firefighter.
The ladies bid a total of £300 for the
experience at a ladies lunch event organised
Area Manager Sean Booth, one of the
exercise’s organisers, said: “It was a success
in terms of testing our ability to mobilise that
many crews and maintain fire cover across
the county.”
The exercise took place in a disused building
on the UMIST site off Sackville Street, near to
the Mancunian Way, in Manchester.
Exercise Swan began at 9.40am with a report
coming in that fires had started on a number
of floors and people were still inside.
Onsite security guards had rang the GMFRS
Control Room to report that there were
squatters in the building and during an
eviction process they had started a number of
fires on the sixth, seventh and eight floors.
Firefighters tackled the blaze, rescued six
casualties and even had to contend with a
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