Customs Dodges

[happy daze john in oz]

Here in our local Community health Center there e fire extinguishers all over the place and twice a year they are checked by the local fire brigade.

One day they came in and could not find any??

Asked the second in charge where they were.

'I removed them, we are into evacuation here not fire fighting.'

They threatened to charge her for her actions and she had to replace them all.

A few weeks late she left for another position.

[Shaun Gander]

This is a topic close to my heart.

I spent many years as a paramedic, witnessed many fires, sometimes on scene well before Trumpton...

I did my first 4 day fire fighting course at Camel's Head, Plymouth fire station, though the MNTB.

Real fires, realistic training, learned things I still consider and remember today. Lots of drills, fought lots of different fires with different media.

Just did the (USCG) approved STCW 95 basic course as they don't recognize any training outside of the USA... No realism at all, no raft inflation, no real fire, only put out one gas over water fire with a water extinguisher -not even sure if we put it out or instructor turned gas off!

All drills in a 20ft container, find victim and recover, spray water on a computer monitor and someone turns 'fire' picture off, no heat. No practical use of BA equipment, no hose drills, no oil/fuel fire, etc.

I didn't pay for the course fortunately or I'd been writing unpleasant letters.

BUT there were people on this course before their first job, a lot of kids - and I don't mean that in a bad way - but despite having the paperwork they will have no idea what to do in a real medical emergency, fire or abandon ship scenario.

Some of this was due to what the state of CA allows and deem safe, but hmmm...

SDG

[Keith Tindell]

Shaun, here in the UK . the premier fire training establishment for civilians as well as the regular fire service, is in Morton-in Marsh Gloucester. They are geared up for pretty much any scenario. In the case of ship fire fighting they have a full size concrete ship in a dock, several decks deep. The exercises carried out involves loading huge amounts of timber in the lower area of this ship and lighting up. Crews have then to enter via the top deck and pulling hoses with them in BA lift the hatches and decent each deck to put the fire out. The heat is tremendous as you would imagine. There are escape doors at various levels in case anyone gets into trouble, and they frequently do. I attended the 6 week BA instructors course, and in that 6 weeks an ambulance had to be called twice, mainly to deal with heat exhaustion . This site is on an old wartime airfield, and there are concrete high rise buildings, dummy aircraft, etc etc. Many foreign Fire Services are sent to Moreton, usually for their senior officer training, kt

[Ivan Cloherty]

I did my first 4 day fire fighting course at Camel's Head, Plymouth fire station, though the MNTB.

Real fires, realistic training, learned things I still consider and remember today. Lots of drills, fought lots of different fires with different media.
SDG

I did that course in Plymouth, very hard work, very intense, no quarter given, steel ship accommodation causing very intense heat, would not take on anyone aged over 40 unless they had a doctor's letter declaring them fit. Did another course in Hull, they were just as rigorous, both Fire Services having actually been in real ship fire scenarios were very aware of what was required, booted some off the course for not paying attention, so it wasn't a case of attend and there's your piece of paper, both a long time ago now, but very useful in real situations I met later in life

[Keith Tindell]

123, these are some of the scenarios that can be created, kt

https://www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk...ck-and-lagoon/

[Bill Cameron]

Ref fire extinguishers, while working as a Customs man at a whisky maturation warehouse, in Edinburgh in the late 1970’s my colleagues and I discovered fire extinguishers being used to get whisky passed us on a fairly regular basis.
Being a whisky warehouse there were many extinguishers around the building which were refilled and recharged on a regular basis this was done by a slightly simple laddie, who went into the warehouse, with a large barrow, he would bring out six at a time, get them refilled and recharged and bring them back into the warehouse, as the laddie was slightly simple, he was rarely checked. But one day we decided to empty the extinguishers under supervision, and behold out of the six extinguishers on the barrow. We found that one was full of whisky, how many times this crime had been done we could never find out, but it was a well organised one.
The extinguishers were checked every time after that, and the names we Customs were called after that, was unprintable 😂😂😂

[John Arton]

Did all my fire fighting courses in Shields. The exercise at the end of the 4 day course was done with the most horrendous hang over after a night on the ale at the Hoffbrau house in Newcastle. The fireman were sadistic gets who would relight any fire that you had failed to completely extinguish by soaking. They would let you move into the next fire and then sneak in behind your fire party and relight the fire you thought you had just extinguished. The advanced fire course included command and control and was undertaken on a three-decker mockup where you had to search and locate a body,fight fires whilst all the time working in zero visibility and intense heat as well as dragging yourself and equipment up or down vertical and sloping ladders , through hatchways and doors to move between decks searching for casualties whilst extinguishing fires, including tackling different types of fires such as cabin or chemical. The whole exercise would take up the whole of the last day with one group doing the morning exercise and the other group the afternoon. Both groups were kept apart from each other to avoid any of the first group passing on any tips.each group would go in blind never having been in the module previously and only been given a quick briefing on the layout of the module just prior to the start of the exercise. You came out of it completely knackered. These days you have to do that course every 5 years to keep your certificate validated.
Never came across anyone using fire extinguishers to smuggle goods but on the Mexican coast I caught the Indian crew smuggling cocaine disguised as packets of dry powder extinguisher recharges as in C.P. we used to do all routine maintenance of fire fighting and life saving equipment on board ourselves. Nowadays, due to new regulations, all that work has to be done by an approved maintenance company.
Rgds
J.A.

[robpage]

are you sure he wasn't stealing the wheelbarrows , using whisky as a distractiohn

[j.sabourn]

#124.. Ivan my next door neighbour on Tyneside was an ex fire chief of Plymouth retired. Of course name of John Fiddaman does it ring any bells. Was ex navy and drove a landing craft on to the beaches at Normandy. Cheers JWS

[Ivan Cloherty]

#124.. Ivan my next door neighbour on Tyneside was an ex fire chief of Plymouth retired. Of course name of John Fiddaman does it ring any bells. Was ex navy and drove a landing craft on to the beaches at Normandy. Cheers JWS

Doesn't ring a bell John, in addition to JA's #127, those bodies made out of old fire hoses and dressed in serge clothing all soaking wet, which you had to recover from smoke filled rooms and carry up and down the hose drying tower were bloody heavy