Yelverton Fire Station's Blog

I’ve created this page to centralise the comments and replies to make correspondence with you easier. Feel free to post a comment, I’ll cut and paste it onto this page with any reply.

Hi Shaun

Thanks for the comment. It would seem whoever pushed the rock out into the road had no idea who he was endangering. As I said on the blog page, if it had been hit by a motorcyclist it could have killed the rider! Hopefully the perpertrator had no intention of harming anyone just a misguided act of hooliganism.  

Hi,

Thanks for the comment. It is standard operating procedure to keep all front line appliances full of fuel at all times. At Yelverton we rarely let the appliance go below 3/4  full. In the event of a fuel strike we would queue with everyone else unless things became critical and then emergency provisions would need to be made with local suppliers to ensure we were able to respond to blue light calls. I’ve been at Yelverton for twenty years and we haven’t needed to do that yet. More worrying is the retained fire fighters ability to respond to station. Most retained firefighters need their cars to respond to station for calls and a fuel strike of any length of time could make things very difficult and again we would need to make arrangements with local suppliers in the event it happens.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Fred

Watch Manager Yelverton Fire Station

Hi Mark

Sorry it’s taken so long to reply.

Mark Newton is a wholetime firefighter at Crownhill as well as a retained Crew Commander at Yelverton. His duties at Crownhill include Vema (Hydraulic platform)instructor. He has provided the following details of the two aerial appliances currently station in Plymouth at Crownhill.

V49A2 Stationed at 49 Crownhill – Magirus DLK 32-12cc ALP
and
V49A1 Stationed at 49 Crownhill – VEMA 343 TFL ALP

Unfortunately I can’t attach any photos to this reply but if you look in comments and correspondence on the blog I’ve put some in there.

Thanks

Fred
WM Yelverton

As promised, the first photo is the Turntable ladder seen at Walkhampton, the second is the Vema.

We received the following letter from a local resident by mail:-

Dear Members

About 3 years ago an officer from the Yelverton Fire Station replaced my smoke alarm and also installed a Carbon Monoxide in my kitchen.

The other day I heard a faint bleeping and could not think where it was coming from. I checked the phone the TV and stood under the smoke alarm. I am hard of hearing, (85) and live alone and I had forgotten that I had a Carbon Monoxide Alarm. A couple of hours later I went into the kitchen and made a cup of tea and only then did I realise where the bleeps were coming from. I now do all my cooking in the microwave but for once I had a pot on the low gas and of course forgot about it.

I turned off the gas, turned off the central heating (oil) opened all the doors and windows. A cleaner comes once a fortnight and must have dislodged the lid (covering the gas flame)  and did not replace it correctly. There was quite a build up of carbon between the flame and the cover.

I know perfectly well that had the alarm not been fitted I would have most probably died. The boiler would have exploded when the gas reached the oil flame and the house burned down, so I felt I must write and thank all the officers at Yelverton Fire Station from the bottom of my heart .

I have felt a little sick for a few days, but now I am quite all right

Yours sincerely and with grateful thanks

Avis Meager.

If you are interested in a home fire safety visit go to the Community fire Safety Page for details of how to apply. 

Hi Gary

Thanks for the comment.
Yes it is the new generation Bristol Kit. I don’t know a lot about it other than it is lighter and doesn’t have a “use by date”. It looks to be woven differently which is only noticeable if you look closely, other than that it looks the same as the old kit.

Thanks
W.M. Fred Glanville

mr glanville
it is very interesting to see how varied a single pump retained station is and the fact of how many communtiy engagement events your crew get involved in, can you tell me please does your station have a set goal to reach be it fire prevention or even just awareness and if so are you meeting this target if you dont mind me asking
thanks
shaun

• Edit Comment

• Hi ShaunYes, we do have targets, we have what’s known as a Local Community Plan. The Plan outlines the station targets for the year for a variety of Fire Service functions and, combined with the other stations in our group make up the Area Plan, that area plan then combines with the others to make up the service plan. If you follow this link you will see our station plan http://www.dsfire.gov.uk/YourArea/WesternCommand/Stations/documents/YelvertonLocalCommunityPlan.pdfBefore the credit crunch we did all our own fire safety at station, that involved school visits, home fire safety visits and multi agency community drives in our area. Since the credit crunch all these functions are now done by either whole time crews (for School visits) or staff employed as “Advocates” and our strategy for home fire safety visits is much more focused on vulnerable groups. Obviously these changes have been introduced to save money and, to a degree, I personally have to agree with them. The chief has a budget which he has to run Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue, in my mind every penny wasted is potentially another fire fighters job lost! The Chief has a lot of imaginative initiatives which has put DSFRS in a much better position that a lot of other Brigades. The “Academy” training facility and the BA school in Exeter are just two of those initiatives that are currently easing the pain of budget cuts.
  Since the cuts were introduced the events the crew have attended in the local area have been on a voluntary basis and I’m fortunate that the crew are still willing to give up their time for free to attend them. As a station we’ve attended Meavy Oak Fair for as long as anyone can remember and hope to continue to do so.
  Hope that covers everything.
  W.M. Fred Glanville.

Hi Shaun

Thanks for the comment. Pleae feel free to use any of the blog, the pictures are not protected so feel free to use any or all of them. My only request is that you do not use the content to portrait the Fire Service in a bad light.

Hi Mark

Thanks for your comment.

In answer to you question. Yes. Although every appliance carries roughly the same equipment they all are tailored to the location they are station at and, sometimes due to stowage like the PPV fans, stations have a resource local to them that carries the required equipment. In our area excluding the wholetime in Plymouth, Bere Alston and Yelverton currently carry PPV fans. 

Darren, thanks for the comment. We get around 150 calls per year.

Tim, Thanks for the comments, thanks for the info on the crashed aircraft photo. The Fire Service are suffering due to the government cut backs and are currently not recuiting whole time fire fighters, that may have changed when you get out of the Navy.

• Very Interesting site, It’s good that you keep the community informed as well as keeping us safe, it’s a pity more stations don’t follow your example.Could you please answer 1 question. Why did you stand-by at 47 whilst they were at the pallet fire and not the pump from Ivybridge?Keep up the good work.
• Thanks for the comment. In reply to your question, Ivybridge did go stand by at Plympton. Two of their crew were used to take the water bowser to the pallet fire. That left them with three men, the minimum crewing level is four. Yelverton were mobilised with five crew to take over stand by duties at Plympton, when they arrived they gave one crew man to Ivybridge which put both pumps back on the run.

  By: yelvertonfirestation on September 22, 2011
  at 12:26 pm 

	Steve Lesson jfnl.comx steve.lesson@jfims.co.uk 82.109.196.210	Submitted on 2011/08/02 at 11:11 pm Hi, This is a very interesting coincidence! Whilst idly digging around for some old ham radio aquantances – notably those from the Pub (Brett & Co.) I see you mentioned RADOS here. Well, my name is Steve Lesson and I’m a Service Engineer for the whole RADOS ranage here in Somerset UK (James Fisher). How about that! Steve ‘M1BJR’ ex Plymouthian and Dartmoor Radio Club founder 43yrs young!

 Devon and Somerset are in the process of changing our Fire Helmet. Rather than waste money replacing all the old helmets at once they have chosen to replace old with new as they become damaged etc. And yes we were at Crownhill on stand by for the Ivybridge fire.

Thanks

W.M. Fred Glanville

I have just noticed your pictures of “Man in River Dart”. That was us on our last day of our vacation. After waiting for over a week, my partner finally received surgery and now has 4 months of recuperation ahead. My thanks go out to all your team who were involved and worked far better and faster than the NHS! Next time we visit Dartmoor we’ll bring along pictures of the injury!! Once again, heartfelt thanks

Submitted on 2011/03/20 at 1:29 pm

Great to read about the incidents you attend. Are Princetown unable to turn out as in this incident and others they are not mentioned.

All retained fire stations go through periods when they go  “Off the run” from time to time due to crew deficiency. Currently princetown is going through such a period, last year Yelverton went through a similar period. In the modern Fire service it takes around six months to train a recruit to a standard that permits them to ride the appliance. With the general ebb and flow of staff through a fire station it is inevitable that stations will, from time to time, go through periods where they struggle to keep the pump on the run. Princetown have Fire fighters in development that currently are not in a position to ride the pump, when they are, I am sure they will remain on the run.
You may have seen on the local television, in Devon and Somerset we use the Gartan system to show our availability. It records our skills such as “BA” and “Command and Control” and each fire fighter lodges his availability on a 15min basis 24 – 7. Gartan will mark a pump “Off the run” when the crewing goes below a critical level, currently four, which allows control to mobilise the nearest pump without wasting time trying to turn out an appliance that has crew deficiencies. Retained fire fighters “bend” their lives around each other to keep the pump on the run, when I say bend I mean manage chores that involve going out of the area like shopping, to times when there is a surplus of crew. As you can imagine this isn’t always popular at home, but Gartan allows us to plan ahead and book time out of the area in advance.

Fred,
Very many thanks to you and your most professional team in dealing with our chimney fire at Horrabridge yesterday 31st Jan. My wife and I were most impressed with the way the fire was dealt with and the way we were kept informed what was happening throughout. Keep up the good work and as they say in the navy Bravo Zulu!

Derek Pulford

PS. Could we have our black hearth brush back pse. (Only joking.)

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and New year

With kind regards

Graham and Family

Hello
Great to see our blog has travelled so far!

RTC means Road Traffic Collision

We used to have RTA which meant Road Traffic Accident but someone somewhere decided no crash was an accident, they concluded there was always some fault to be apportioned so it couldn’t be an accident.

Glad to be of help, any other questions please feel free to ask.

News Release

Fly tipping costs Plymouth man

A 39-year-old Plymouth man has been ordered to pay more than £1,100 after his household waste was found flytipped at a South Hams beauty spot.

Steven John Pinsent of Norfolk Road, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that his waste was passed to an authorised person for disposal at Torquay Magistrates.

The waste was found dumped at Cadover Bridge car park near Lee Moor in February.

The court heard that the waste was found strewn around the car park at Cadover Bridge, and some of it had even blown into a nearby stream. After South Hams District Council officers had checked the waste and gathered it together for collection, someone set fire to it, requiring fire crews from Yelverton Fire Station to put out the blaze.

Mr Pinsent told magistrates that he had moved house in January this year and had set aside a number of boxes full of toys and other items, including a gas heater together with a 12 kg gas cylinder. He said he had placed them at the rear of his new property by a bin store, with a view to returning to the items some seven days after he left them there.

He said he could not account for how the waste had subsequently moved from his property to the moorland site but accepted that with hindsight he should have secured the waste or taken it to a council tip which was no more than a mile or so from his home.

Magistrates said they viewed his actions as very serious and one which placed the public and emergency services at risk. He was fined £200 plus a Victim Surcharge of £15 and ordered to pay the all of South Hams District Council’s costs of £896.

After the hearing, a spokesman for South Hams District Council said: “Once again we have to remind householders that they have a duty of care to ensure that their waste is only passed to someone properly licensed to take it away.

“If their waste is found fly tipped they may be prosecuted as in this case. Unlicensed waste carriers offering cheap services are undercutting genuine operators, the waste is frequently then fly tipped, which spoils the countryside and places unnecessary additional costs on the council tax payers of the South Hams.”

Any information regarding fly tipping or suspected rogue traders can be reported to South Hams District Council on 01803 861234 or on the confidential 24 hours answer phone line 01803 861262.

Ends

083-10

24th September 2010

For more information please contact South Hams District Council’s Communications Team on 01803 861368 or 861369, mobile 07773 426834 or email public.relations@southhams.gov.uk

Hi great blog it really gives people a idea of what retained firefighters do, i myself am looking into becoming a firefighter one day and hopefully maybe do retained work aswell give something to the community. its nice to see a retained firefighters way of life as at normal Wholetime stations its 9 till 6 2 days 2 nights then 4 off I’m from London and we are a very big brigade with 112 fire stations plus one river station.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/london_fire_photos/

Hey the cute fireman named Alex is quite popular in the USA. All the girls are drulling over him. I am now taking tickets to see who will win a date with him. They will even pay for his ticket to get here. But he has to bring his uniform because girls in the US like uniforms. LOL Love Debbie

You know Mark and Alex you would get more work done if you would uncross your arms, in the U.S we don’t cross our arms at work. LOL
Debbie

Debbie Bricks

To Fred and the Gang,

Can’t thank you all enough for all of the help you gave me during my photo shoots of your drill nights for college! There will be 5 or 6 photographs in Plymouth Art College’s end of year exhibition which is open on Fri 25th June (15:30-19:30) and Monday 28th-Wednesday 30th (09:30-19:30). Any of your firefighters are welcome to my friends and family private viewing on Thursday 24th June from 18:30-21:00). Hope some of you can make it. Feel free to get in touch if you need any more photies. Thanks again – you’re a bunch of wee stars!! Eileen x
If you need a map to the college, this is the website – http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/Contact-us

By: eileen long on June 18, 2010
at 1:55 pm

Reply

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Sorry, forgot to say, the extended degree exhibition is in the REGENT BUILDING in Regent Street. (Number 2 on the map). cheers

By: eileen long on June 18, 2010
at 1:57 pm

Hey Alex, Nice picture we love it in California US. Lots of girls interested! Big cute fireman. Must be the uniform! Debbie

Fred & The team!

Thank you very much for having us….. It was a really great experience that not only provided a great challenge for the cameras but an excellent experience that will stay with me forever.

Tell Kev, next time you have a camera crew not to back chat the boss when I am still wearing a microphone hey!?

An excellent evening…. thank you to you and your team for being so welcoming and I will get a DVD copy of the film and audio sent over to you when we get it.

Thanks again & the best of luck with the vital work you do.

Josh & The team!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=18751575733&ref=ts

Hiya,

I am a teacher at a Nursery in Yelverton (War Memorial Hall) and was wondering if you would be kind enough to visit us for half an hour one day if you could spare the time? If not could is the station staffed during the day so that we could visit? They are under 5 so the evening is not really possible…
Look forward to hearing from you,
Many thanks,
Ashley 

• Ashley
  Thanks for the E.Mail. Yes, we would be happy to visit, subject to crew availability and fire calls. When would be convenient, and what time would you like us to arrive. Can you give me a few dates, it will help ensure I have a crew.

  Thanks
  Fred

yelvertonfirestation clynham@dsfire.gov.uk 212.24.85.46

2010/04/20 at 10:36am | In reply to steve freeman. Steve Colin Shaw from Bere Alston has come up trumps and has lent us some photos of the incident, I’ve had them scanned in and put them in the correspondence page. Thanks again. Fred

Do you know the identity of any of the firemen in the picture above?

Did you spot Colin Shaw?

Drop me a line if you can help.

Hi, My name is Darren i have a interest in the fire service and im very keen to become a retained ff in the torbay area. im interested to see the regular blogs posted on your page and look quite often. I noticed you do alot of standby cover at crown hill and i was interested to know if any station then has to cover your ground?
good job on the website!

• Edit Comment

By: Darren Biggs on April 15, 2010

Darren, thanks for the comments. If contact our Service HQ at Exeter on 01392 872200 and ask for the retained recruitment line, they will be able to explain the terms and conditions of employment of a retained fire fighter and send you a recruitment pack. Reference cover at Yelverton when we are at Crownhill on stand by duties. When all the surrounding appliances are involved in calls then an appliance may be sent to Yelverton or Tavistock on stand by duties. Normally the other local stations are not on calls so a stand by cover at Yelverton is not required. All the surrounding stations take a piece of our ground to cover while we are out.Hope that answers all your queswtions, if you have any more please drop me a line.Thanks

FredBy:

yelvertonfirestation

on April 16, 2010

at 1:16 pm

Hi,

Just wondering if your can help? My name is Jamie Hughes, I’m the producer and co presenter for The Josh Andrews Show on Hospital Radio Plymouth. The Josh Andrews Show is aimed to entertain Derriford Hospital ’s younger audience, which is mostly under the age of 18, but we have found that our transmission on 87.7FM attracts us listeners from all ages. Since the show started in December 2007, we have recently come out in first place in our monthly listening figures as the most listened to weekend programme on our Patientline entertainment system beating Radio 2, BBC Radio Devon and our local commercial radio station Heart.

On the show we are starting a new feature called ‘Challenge Josh’, this is where we send our presenter Josh Andrews out to learn a new skill each week. I was just wondering if there is any possiblity that Josh could come spend some time and learn some basic skills with the gang at Yelverton Fire Station?

If this is possible then we would come and record some material, which we can used for the show i.e short Interviews with the crew and capture some of what Josh experiences doing his time at the fire station. We can also supply you with copies of the package which is broadcast on our radio show.

I hope that maybe we can arrange something. Look forward to hearing from you.

Jamie Hughes

jamie.hughes01@btopenworld.com

John
Thanks for the message, I’ve asked Steve to call you and arrange a time to pick up the photo, once we’ve scanned it we’ll put a copy on the wall and publish it on the blog. Feel free to drop in any time, if you see the black pick up in the car park I’m in the station.

Thanks again
Fred

Thanks for the invitation to the Old Boys Day, nice to to see Steve regarded as an old boy in photo. More seriously if you would like to contact me with regards to my holding a Long service Medal and possibly contributing to your wall of old boys. And yes the main pump was pulled off it’s mountings from a Plymouth based appliance at Denham Bridge.
Thanks again for that Saturday morning
From Ex Sub Officer John Sowden. 

Reference the call to rescue a young boy from a tree on the 2nd of March, we have received the following letters from Peter and his parents. They also left a couple of boxes of biscuits which although not necessary are much appreciated, thank you.

Clive
Thanks for updating the blog and please feel free to use any of the blog content to assist your case. It is reassuring to see that this issue is being taken seriously, could you update us of the out come of the court case.

Thanks
W.M. Fred Glanville

Re: the fire at 2243 11th feb 2010 at Cadover Bridge carpark; the Fly Tip of waste had been attended earlier that day by officers from South Hams District Council. It was boxed up and reported for collection, though obviously someone set fire to it first. You will be pleased to know that the origin of the waste was traced and a man from Plymouth stands reported for Fly Tipping and a prosecution is pending; if you have no objection the relevant entry in your excellent station blog will be presented to the court as an example of the problems caused by this activity.

Clive Mackriell
Enforcement Officer
Environment Services
South Hams District Council
Totnes

“great website very interesting like the pictures of the pumps old and new. have you got any pictures and did you attend the fire at denham bridge in the long hot summer 1976 i know bere alston were there look forward to your reply”
By: steve freeman on March 21, 2010

Steve, Thanks for your comments. Yelverton did go to the big fire at Denham Bridge, I’ve asked Peter Brown, the former Sub Officer at Yelverton if he has any pictures of the fire, and I’ve Emailed Colin Shaw at Bere Alston who we think has a photo. I’ll print the picture on the blog if we find one. There was a rumour that the wind changed and the fire engines pumping water up the hill had to pull out quickly. The legend goes, one of the pumps forgot to diconnect and pulled the pump out the back of the fire engine!! sounds a bit far fetched to me but you never know.
By: yelvertonfirestation on March 21, 2010
at 12:49 pm

“Thanks a million for letting me park when the weather was too bad for a little punto to make it home.
next time could you please give it a full valet or is that pushing it too far??????”
By: maddie watling on February 10, 2010
at 8:14 pm

“I’m an RDS Firefighter at Stn 81 Shepton Mallet. Just a short line to say keep up the good work with the blog. I keep having a regular look to see how you guys down in Devon are getting on. May see some of you on a course one day……”
By: Simon Towned on February 5, 2010
at 2:36 pm

“Do you ever hold open days at the fire station? My children are desperate to find out!”
By: S Reid on October 12, 2009
at 7:13 pm

• Fire Stations do hold open days but at present we don’t have one planned. Children often visit the station with organisations such as the Scouts and Guides or on some occasions Classes from local schools and play groups. If they are members of an organisation we would gladly arrange an evening to show them around the station and appliance. Just make a request through the blog or visit the station on a Monday night to arrange a visit. 

  By: yelvertonfirestation on October 16, 2009
  at 3:08 pm

“hey guys, web site looks great, defantly needs more photos of u at work doing what you all do best.
hope your all well. take care xx”
By: sam poulter on June 26, 2009
at 10:00 am

• alan lake

  2009/07/14 at 10:26pm “fred and guys love the blog really good will be keeping an eye on it, so keep it up all the best lakey”