Totnes Fire Brigade welcome Mike Treleaven on exercise.

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 1st Feb 2004

Totnes Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Mike Treleaven, had a chance to see for himself how the fire brigade deal with emergencies when he joined the Totnes Station last Thursday ( February 12th.) to witness a full blown exercise.

Accompanied by Station Officer Rob Woods Mike first toured the Totnes station and then went to Glendale farm outside Dartington where disused building had been set up to simulate a youth hostel that had caught fire with many people missing. Two fire engines and an Incident Command Vehicle were soon on the scene where Sub Officer Martin Billis took charge of the incident and quickly had his team in breathing apparatus searching for the missing people. Totnes Station Officer, Steve Howrihane, was on hand to observe his team of retained firefighters deal with the incident efficiently as all the 'missing persons' were rescued from smoke filled rooms.

Commenting on the visit Mike Treleaven said:

'It was a real pleasure to join in and observe this exercise and see this dedicated team of firefighters at work. Everyone at Totnes is a retained firefighter which means they have full time jobs as well as being on call all the time. I don't think people always realise the time, commitment and degree of professionalism involved in the retained fire service, but this exercise certainly demonstrated to me how lucky we are to have such a team, not only to deal with emergencies, but much more as well. The fire brigade are not just firefighters as they are involved in a huge variety of rescue functions that need a wide range of skills. Fire prevention also plays a key role as they go round giving advice and educating people.'

He continued:

' At the end of the exercise I went into the smoke filled rooms where you could hardly see your hand in front of your face .You can just imagine the teamwork and training needed to ensure that everyone is brought out safely and the fire dealt with. On the exercise there was no real fire - the heat and tension of a real incident must make things ten times worse. We all hope never to need their services, but should we do so we will be in very good hands'.