Control Room Manager
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue

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Alwyn F

00:00:05 My name’s Alwyn F and I’m the control room manager at the main control room for Lothian and Borders, Fire and Rescue, and we’re based at Tollcross in Edinburgh.

00:00:17 It can be stressful at times when you’re taking a call and someone’s, say, trapped by fire but fortunately those calls are not that common, although we train quite hard to deal them and it’s the training that gets you through it in the end, and we work as a close team. So you’re never…you never feel really isolated dealing with it on your own. So I suppose in that way, any stress is kind of dissipated or shared among the team.

00:00:49 When I was at school, I didn’t have a clear idea of what career I would want to do and I think that was the norm at that time. But I became interested in psychology and wanted to be a child psychologist, which was unusual because I didn’t know anything about children and I was only 18 at the time. So I went to university and studied psychology and English and graduated and then thought, ‘well, I don’t know what I want to do now’. And it was just by chance that my sister saw the job of a fire control operator advertised and she phoned me up to tell me about it and I applied. So, I joined…I got offered the job, took the job and I’m…thirty years later I’m now in charge, which was quite a journey.

00:01:43 I’ve brought in with me my long service and good conduct medal which anyone who knows me would laugh about me having a medal, or me being remotely proud of this medal, but I quite like it. Everyone gets it provided they’re here for, I think it’s 20 years. The good conduct bit, I don’t think they checked my past before they gave me it, but it is quite a nifty wee thing and it pins on, you have a little ribbon on your jacket and it just pins on and you can wear it on special occasions. How many people have got a medal? I think it’s great I’ve got a medal.

00:02:23 A highlight for me in the Fire Service has been meeting my current partner, who I probably wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t joined the Fire Service. But the other high point is, I suppose, if I hadn’t joined the Fire Service or had a well-paid job, I’m just back from Everest base camp and I don’t suppose I could have funded that so easily if I’d not had a well-paid job. High points in terms of my career. Well one would maybe just be last week after Bonfire Night where we…I put into place this new plan for how we would manage the control room and the calls and it went really well. It was something new, it was something different, a bit of change. And yet, you know, we really came up with the goods and I felt that a high point. Feeling I’d done…made a difference and done a good job.

00:03:15 I’ve never regretted joining the service and I’ve never looked back and thought, ‘I wonder what my life would have been like had I been a child psychologist’. But I have in a roundabout way come back to psychology and I’ve got a post grad diploma in counselling, so I’m a qualified counsellor, and I’m now back thinking about Freud and all these other issues that I was studying 30 years ago so. It’s a funny world.

00:03:45 Five years time, I’ll still be here. Ten years time, I’ll probably have retired and I’ll be doing voluntary counselling and still studying and listen to my Bob Dylan music and play my guitar and whatever. A hippie to the end in spite of my uniform. ENDS

 

Alwyn F is a Control Room Manager for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue. She combines her psychology and counselling background with her firefighting. “It can be stressful at times when you’re taking a call and someone’s trapped by fire”.

End of LMI for All

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£32,240
average salary

The UK average salary is £29,813

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45
average weekly hours

There are 37.5 hours in the average working week

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81%  male 
19%  female 

The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male

Future employment

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Description
? Fire service officers (watch manager and below) co-ordinate and participate in firefighting activities, provide emergency services in the event of accidents or bomb alerts, and advise on fire prevention.
Qualifications
There are no formal academic requirements, although applicants to fire control roles must demonstrate basic literacy and numeracy, keyboard and communication skills. Applicants to fire-fighter roles must pass psychological, physical and medical tests. Some Fire and Rescue Services operate direct entry recruitment processes to managerial operational roles. There is a minimum age limit of 18 years for entry to fire-fighter and control operator roles and DBS checks can be required.
Tasks
  • Inspects premises to identify potential fire hazards and to check that firefighting equipment is available and in working order and that statutory fire safety regulations are met
  • Arranges fire drills and tests alarm systems and equipment
  • Travels to fire or other emergency by vehicle and locates water mains if necessary
  • Operates hose pipes, ladders, chemical, foam, gas or powder fire extinguishing appliances
  • Rescues people or animals trapped by fire or other emergency situations such as flooding and administers first aid
  • Removes goods from fire damaged premises, clears excess water, makes safe any structural hazards and takes any other necessary steps to reduce damage to property
  • Attends and deals with bomb alerts and accidents involving spillage of hazardous substances
  • Advises on fire safety measures in new buildings
  • Supervises a watch
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