Highlands pose ‘severely unique challenges’ for Inverness fire station
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00:00Obviously within the SFRS we've got a multitude of challenges that we face every day regarding
00:13climate challenges, water rescues, we've also got the issues with the amount of cars on
00:18the road in regards to road traffic issues. However, in the Highlands these challenges
00:22can be severely unique in regards to the area, the vast area that we've got to cover.
00:27Burness is quite a unique station, we're the only whole time station in the Highlands.
00:32The rest of the stations are retained so we rely heavily on our retained colleagues to
00:37help us out, keeping up our training, making sure we're at our best to respond when the
00:42community needs us. But also a big part of the role is engaging with our community through
00:48home fire safety visits through operational intelligence.
00:51A big part of our job is educating people because as much as it's very exciting for
00:55the firefighters going out to fire, we don't actually want those to happen in the first
00:59place, we want to prevent them. And we do that in a variety of different ways, so that
01:03could be going to schools for example and talking on various different subjects, not
01:08just fire safety, we do water safety, road safety, anti-social behaviour.
01:13Recruitment is a challenge all over the Highlands, especially with the Scottish Fire and Rescue
01:17Service because we rely heavily on a primary employer giving the time to the SFRS to let
01:24a firefighter away from their employment to potentially save a life in the local community.
01:29There is challenges but pride, the sense of achievement that you get every single day
01:34massively overweighs the challenges and hopefully with things like this, Firefighter for a Day
01:39shows that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is a great opportunity for everyone.