MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Fire and Rescue Service member attends top specialized training in UK

Marc during the 3-day Road Traffic Collision phase of his training at The Fire Service College in Moreton in Marsh

The Falkland Islands Fire and Rescue Service welcomed back Marc from his 8-week Firefighter Development training program at The Fire Service College in Moreton in Marsh a few weeks ago.

During his time, he completed 2-weeks of foundation skills which included training in hoses, ladders, pumps and primers, knots and lines, building construction, working near water, fire media and incident command. He then went onto his Breathing Apparatus (BA) phase which was a 3-week segment consisting of fire behavior, branch techniques, ventilation, hose management, search and rescue, entrapped procedures, entanglement procedures and confined space. During this phase, he wore a breathing apparatus set in the training environments 26 times.

After BA came the medical training where he underwent a 5-day FREC 3 course, which led nicely into the 3-day Road Traffic Collision phase. This included stabilization training and extrication techniques in a range of vehicles, managing to “cut up” 12 cars in the 3-day period. Once RTC was completed he moved onto the 2-day Hazardous Materials Phase of the course marking the end of the training period.

Once training was completed and Marc had passed the 16 theory exams and practical observation assessments, he had station scenarios which included simulations of being called out to a range of training incidents throughout the day to simulate life on station.

During the pass out ceremony held at the college he was nominated as the Recruits Recruit; this is a vote amongst his peers to decide who they believe has been the trainee that has helped them along the way, not just in training but throughout their entire time at the college.

We would like to congratulate Marc on completing his Firefighter Development Training.

Marc has said “The training I received was an amazing experience with brilliant instructors and facilities. I would like to thank the Fire and Rescue Service for the opportunity to go away and receive this training. I feel the training will benefit the service and community because I can pass on the knowledge and skills given to me to our retained members, which will mean that they are kept up to date and the levels are kept to a high standard. I had a brilliant group of people to train with from many different services including Gibraltar, Limerick Ireland, BAE Systems and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue, who made this such an enjoyable experience.”