Matt, Tom and Lloyd are pictured training the firefighters in hose techniques

27 November 2008

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture of the team

Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority has donated a fire engine to Kraljevica Fire Station, 1,000 miles away in Croatia, and trained local firefighters so that they can use it. 

Firefighters and officers from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service drove the fire engine from Aylesbury through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia before arriving at their destination. They are:

• Station Manager Tim Parkins, from Milton Keynes, who has a total of 21 years’ service at Bletchley and Great Holm Fire Stations in Milton Keynes. He is now based at Brigade HQ in Aylesbury.

• Watch Manager Lloyd Davis, Brigade Equipment Officer, based at Brigade HQ in Aylesbury. Lloyd has been a retained firefighter for nearly 23 years.

• Firefighter Matt O’Sullivan from Bletchley Fire Station. Matt previously served at Aylesbury Fire Station.

• Firefighter Tom Bamford from the Retained Duty System crew at Aylesbury.

The vehicle, a 1993 Scania P93 water tender with 65,000 miles on the clock, had reached the end of its working life as a front-line appliance with Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service. It was inspected by the brigade's workshop in Aylesbury and stowed with various items of road traffic collision and firefighting equipment.

The team faced several setbacks on the journey to Croatia. Tim said: “The satellite navigation system stopped working when we left Italy and drove into non-European Union country Slovenia, which made progress a little slower.

“We also spent two very long days at the border at Croatia. We had to leave the Scania in a compound while we discussed the legalities of donating an appliance from an EU country to a non-EU country.”

When they finally arrived in Kraljevica the team were met by villagers, the fire station president, the firefighters and their families who all helped to unload equipment from the appliance.

Tim said: “We were made to feel very welcome when we arrived at Kraljevica. When the firefighters looked at the Scania they were very impressed with the high pressure hoses and became even more excited when we showed them how to use hose reels and main jets at the same time.”

Kraljevica Fire Station’s 20 or so volunteers previously responded to emergency incidents in two vans, one carrying basic equipment and the other the firefighters.

The delay at the Croatian border meant the team only had one day to pass on any knowledge to the crew in Kraljevica, which comprises four professional firefighters and a number of students, older men and children.

The team did manage to familiarise the crew with the fire engine and the equipment it holds and also ladder and hose techniques. They also found time to pass on vital skills in the use of longboards and collars, used as part of casualty care when releasing someone trapped as a result of a road traffic collision.

“Donating the Scania allows the crew to respond more easily to a range of incidents, but we felt frustrated that the problems experienced at the border left us little time to deliver the level of training we had intended,” said Tim.

“Fortunately we were able to leave some training materials prepared by Matt regarding safety critical equipment, which would enhance the training we did deliver.”

The mission was organised in conjunction with the UK charity Operation Florian, which works to promote the protection of life amongst communities in need all over the world by providing equipment and training to improve fire-fighting and rescue capabilities.

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s firefighters have been involved in a number of humanitarian trips to Eastern Europe and Africa over the years, and first visited Kraljevica in the 1990s to help repair the local hospital and orphanage.

The Scania donated this year spent most of its working life as a rescue pump at Newport Pagnell Fire Station before moving to Aylesbury Fire Station and then Brill Fire Station, where it was in use until earlier this year.

Damian Smith, Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s Chief Fire Officer, said: “Members of our fire and rescue authority are very supportive of any humanitarian work we can do abroad, in addition to providing an emergency fire and rescue service for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

In 2006 Tim and Lloyd were members of a party that took a surplus 19-year-old fire engine to Gjakove in Kosovo, where it is still in active service.

Click here for the news release issued before the team left for Croatia.