Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service (HIWFRS) have issued a heartfelt thank you to their valued volunteers for all the time they spend supporting the Service and the community helping to make life safer for all across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The HIWFRS Volunteer Programme is now in its 14th year and the Service currently has over 100 volunteers including members of the community, current operational firefighters, retired firefighters and ex-firefighters.
The volunteers support HIWFRS in a variety of roles, from helping them to run the Fire Cadet units to promoting fire safety at community events and delivering home fire safety (Safe and Well) visits. Their dedicated volunteers also help to support their HIWFRS Prince’s Trust programme, New Forest wildfire prevention patrols, acting as casualties during training exercises and many other tasks.
Here’s a round-up of just some of the great work HIWFRS volunteers have done to support the Service and local communities this year…
From January to March this year, a group of HIWFRS volunteers visited high-rise buildings across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to test communications for the Service.The project was set up to ensure that firefighters could communicate by radio with colleagues and other services on the ground during an incident.
During the project, the eight volunteers visited a whopping 400 buildings – that’s an awful lot of stairs! A huge thank you to Tracey, Deb, Shirley, Lorraine, Chris, Harry, Ruth and Gary!
Community Volunteer Tracey said:
“This was a very interesting project for us. As well as providing vital and valuable information back to the project manager, we found it quite wonderful to see our hometown and surrounding areas from so many different heights and angles. We all enjoyed this project and the exercise was a bonus too!”
Back in February, HIWFRS joined forces with the NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Community Pharmacy South Central to launch a safety campaign around the fire risks of emollients.
Prior to the campaign launch date, a group of volunteers gathered together at HIWFRS Headquarters in Eastleigh to help pack up campaign resource packs as part of the safety campaign. The team spent hours packing up thousands of campaign resources including posters and postcards which were then sent to pharmacies and GP surgeries across Hampshire and the Isle Of Wight to help raise public awareness of the fire risks of emollients.
Deb, Tracey, Johnny, Graham and Cliff sorted and packed thousands of postcards and posters and their support with the campaign made a real difference.
A volunteer recognition evening was held in March to celebrate the HIWFRS volunteers and the many ways they support the Service. Now in its second year, the volunteer recognition event brought together volunteers and their families with HIWFRS colleagues and dignitaries for an evening of celebration and thanks.
In April some of the Service’s Basingstoke volunteers were busy supporting the Service by taking part in a live training exercise at Basingstoke Fire Station. Tracey, Deb, Shirley and Lorraine all acted as live casualties during the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) training scenario.
HIWFRS Crew Manager at Basingstoke Fire station Chris Sellick said:
“I can’t emphasise how great the volunteers were at getting stuck in, wearing the prop clothes, and getting involved with make up and moulage. If we were issuing Bafta awards I’m fairly certain they would be in the top pickings! The watch have commented on how beneficial it was for them to have ‘live casualties’ as did the ambulance service – super helpful for realistic training!”
At the end of April, HIWFRS Volunteer Andy supported the Service by acting as an interpreter to support communication during a ship fire at Southampton docks.
The fire onboard a cargo ship was contained by HIWFRS but officers and crews required a Mandarin speaker to communicate with the ships officer and crew members during the incident who were all from China. Volunteer Andy who speaks Mandarin attended the incident to act as an interpreter between the ship’s Chief Officer and the Incident Commander.
HIWFRS’ Volunteer Programme Manager Lee Joss said:
“In total our volunteers have contributed 10,000 hours this year which is an incredible achievement and I’d like to say a huge congratulations and thank you to them all.”
These are just a few of the ways in which our volunteers have supported the Service so far this year, and this doesn’t include the countless community events, car washes, open days, wildfire patrols, home fire safety visits, and much more that they will continue to help us with. On behalf of everyone from HIWFRS and the communities we serve, thank you!
The Service is always looking for new volunteers so if you are a team player with loads of enthusiasm and want to make a difference in your community, visit our Volunteer pages to find out more.