Annual Leave

Well I have been on Annual leave for the last two weeks and have another week to go before I start back in my "Greens". This does not mean that I have not been in them whilst off though (NO No no I am not that kinky! and neither is Kal that good at begging!) I have been doing the odd overtime shift with SORT (Special Operations Response Team), these guys are great, they receive a lot of bad press internally within the Service as they are seen to sit and drink tea and eat digestives all day, but they don't (Well not all the time). I have done the odd shift with them before, mostly as an "On-call" team member, so I jumped at the chance to work a couple of shifts with them.

I can now honestly say that driving a 7 1/2 tonne truck with blue lights and sirens through sleepy East Lothian villages is one of the best things in the world... well I know there is probably better but it was GREAT!!!

Whilst working on the team I had the chance to get back into a chemical suit, set up the MDU (Mobile Decontamination Unit) and a CCS (Casualty Clearing Station) on the Monday, I was also poked and prodded by some visitors from Denmark who were over to see the set up and equipment which the SOR Team have available to them. I was also given my refresher on the oxygen system, vehicle tail lift, scene set up etc.

On the next couple of shifts I didn't really do anything other than refresher training on equipment, systems etc. I was lucky enough to get down to see the USAR (Urban Search And Rescue) training at the Fire College, we had just gotten kitted up in the extra protective equipment from the Fire Service and were ready to go into the "Building site" and our pagers went off to indicate we had a job, so quick change and into the vehicles and off we went with lights and sirens going...to much interest of the locals within the villages of East Lothian seeing big white trucks with SPECIAL OPERATIONS sign written along the side (some people think its the bomb squad!) only to be stood down when we got onto the A1. I got back onto the station and some of the team were due to finish, and new staff were coming on (staff work 8 and 12 hrs shifts), so with my new partner we took a different vehicle (smaller version of the truck) and went of to fuel it and collect some paperwork. Whilst in the EMDC (Control Room) a call came in for a chemical incident and away we were again! Only to be stood down two hundred yards from the incident site, oh well back to base again!