Having had no previous experience of working
with the Emergency Services, until 13 months
ago, I can attest that the public’s perspective
of the Fire and Rescue Service is overwhelmingly
positive, this a credit to our firefighters and their
interaction with the public. This is a dream for
a Communications Officer, as my efforts to
raise awareness of different strands of working,
highlight safety campaigns and promotional
events are met with great enthusiasm from the
media and the public.
Due to the nature of partnership working
between Emergency Service Agencies, a
Communications Officer will liaise often with
counterparts from the Police and Ambulance
Services. A large number of incidents involve
all three Services’ attendance and would,
on some occasions, require a joint statement
or one agency to lead the communications
element.
Raising public awareness of the latest
partnership scheme is an important aspect of
our work. One such scheme is the Co-responder
and Defibrillator capability of Mid and West
Wales Fire and Rescue Service, the Welsh
Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) and the Cariad
Charity which aims to provide the earliest
possible response to life-threatening medical
emergencies. It is vitally important, therefore,
that people are aware and comfortable
that the Fire Service is fully capable of being
deployed to a medical incident.
This last year has not been without its difficult
periods. During the summer of 2016, I was
required to assist with the media handling
following a tragic incident that in volved the
death of a 4-year-old boy at a property fire.
The harrowing circumstances of this incident
made it challenging to perform my duties and
the heightened presence of the media, due to
such a tragic incident, intensified the situation.
I am full of admiration for the firefighters that
attended the incident and of the Officers in
Command that fielded questions from the
media following the incident.
At the time of writing this article, the CCBD
department is preparing for a whole host of
summer activities as we ready ourselves to
support the Community Risk Reduction Teams
that will attend varying festivals and events,
Fire Station Open Days and publish numerous
summer safety messages. Whilst we are on the
verge of all this, planning is already underway
for MAWWFRS’s annual Celebrating Success
Awards, hosted at the end of the year, to
honour and recognise the amazing feats of our
firefighters and support staff. This is an excellent
event to recap a year of activity for the Fire and
Rescue Service and also a great platform to
promote the work of MAWWFRS to the media.
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