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Station Manager is John Bull
Drill nights for High Wycombe Fire Station's retained firefighters are held on Wednesdays, starting at 7.30pm. |
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John joined Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service in 1981, serving seven years at High Wycombe and 17 years at Beaconsfield before being transferred back to High Wycombe in September 2005.
High Wycombe Fire Station is positioned on the crossroads, now a multi-roundabout, at the junction of the A40 London to Oxford road with the A404 Amersham to Maidenhead Road in the South of the County. The building was officially opened in 1966 and now after 40 years it has been earmarked for relocation awaiting a suitable site.
The area served by the station is a mixture of urban and rural, residential and light and medium industrial, motorway to country lane, with sites such as a hospital, large schools, medium sized shopping malls, stately homes and military sites.
The station is home to an establishment of 60 wholetime firefighters split into four watches, with a further 10 Retained Duty System firefighters. In 2005 the station responded to a total of 1,362 emergency calls.
Although the station is old, the vehicles are new with modern features. It has two Scania 94D Rescue Pumps which arrived in February 2006 kitted out with drop-down stowage shelves, improved conspicuity with scene lights and Battenburg markings, drop-down mounting steps and a single 999 light switch for ease of light control.
As a special appliance the station has a Metz 24-metre Turntable Ladder which is a versatile machine allowing independent jacking facility for use in narrow roads and confined spaces. With this jacking mechanism and its short wheelbase chassis, the vehicle can be sited and used within many house driveways in the area.
The retained appliance is a four-wheel drive Unimog acquired from Stokenchurch which was used to good effect in 2006 at field fires in Wooburn Green and Beaconsfield and at the waste centre fire at Bledlow. It is a valuable asset at these types of incidents with its pump and drive capability and its sparge pipe facility.
Jo Oliver, the Community Safety Partnership Manager for Wycombe District, is also based at the station.