Councillor Colin Horncastle and Councillor Christine Dunbar, Chair and Deputy Chair of Community Services at Northumberland County Council, spent the day with firefighters from West Hartford and Pegswood to gain a deeper understanding of local challenges.

Earlier this week, Cllrs Horncastle and Dunbar were invited to meet up Chief Fire Officer Paul Hedley, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Graeme Binning and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jim McNeil for the morning at West Hartford Fire Station to meet the firefighters and to get to know more about the equipment used.

Suited and booted they joined the firefighters taking part in some regular training exercises and were getting a real insight into the job.

Later in the afternoon, the Colin and Christine went to Pegswood Fire Station where they saw a demonstration to show how the firefighters put out a fire using a fire box and how they go about cutting someone out of a vehicle. Christine was brought out of a vehicle on a stretcher in a simulation of an accident as can be seen in this video posted: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=188378996699495.

Commenting on their visit, Cllr Horncastle said:

“It was brilliant to get a taste of what the firefighters do and get an insight into their training and experiences.”

“If anyone out there is interested in doing their bit to support our firefighters, you could sign up to be an on-call firefighter. Check out Northumberland’s recruitment here: https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Fire/On-call-firefighter-recruitment.aspx.”

Cllr Dunbar said,

“We had a fabulous day and were very impressed by the skill and professionalism of our Fire Fighters and the teamwork they show.”

“My thanks go to Paul, Graeme, Jim and the amazing teams for taking their time to sit down with us, show us the training exercises and letting us be a part of their day. It was a fantastic experience putting on the full kit, being put through my paces with a training exercise.”