Firestyle Magazine Issue 7 - Spring 2017 | Page 12

FIRE SERVICE RELATED
He was on the way to a boiler
fire when he got the message
to say there had been a fire
at sea aboard the merchant
vessel Honor.
Hours later he was being
lowered aboard the vessel
from a helicopter to carry out
an assessment and check the
blaze was out.
The following day he was
preparing some work to show
the benefits of sprinklers and
downloading footage from his
body worn camera... then his
pager went off.
A kitchen fire blaze was ripping
through a fourth floor flat in a
highrise building at Gunwharf
Quays, Portsmouth’s busiest
shopping area.
Just hours after leaving the deck
GM Deacon was operational
commander at the 10-engine
wind driven blaze as hundreds of
shoppers documented his team’s
every move on social media.
“These may sound like very
exciting examples but it is equally
rewarding to be involved in the
preventative work that we do,” he
added.
“The training we get is amazing
- it is second to none. When an
incident happens you are so
well prepared and know you are
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supported by an amazing
team of people. groundbreaking work in the field
of health.
“What’s amazing to me is how
far HFRS has come. Nobody
could have thought that 30
years ago when I started
they could end up being
a dog handler or that our
firefighters would be doing “It is a privilege and an honour to
work for a service that is leading
the way in shaping the modern
fire service.”
In addition to a clutch of
professional qualifications he