As I look through
my google calendar at all the greyed out events of the past four months I can’t
help but smile. What was at first an uncertain journey became the best
adventure of my life. Coming to London as a theatre production major I was
excited to immerse myself in the world of London theatre from the West End to
well…zone 4. Seeing theatre was very important to me during the last 4 months,
but was not my only goal.
Before flying out
in January I was sitting at my firehouse back home thinking about what I would
want to do in London. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to immerse
myself in the culture as much as possible. I wanted to become a local and
experience as much of a Londoner’s daily life as I can through the sights,
smells, and sounds of the city. I also knew I wanted to do something else. That
something else didn’t hit me until the pager at the firehouse went off
dispatching us to a fire alarm activation. Donning my gear and boarding the
engine suddenly made me realize what that other goal was; to learn as much as I
could about the similarities and differences between firefighting in America vs
London.
Firefighting has
been in my blood since I joined my local volunteer fire department when I was
15. Along with lighting design for the theatre, firefighting is my other
passion in life. Waking up at 3am by the sound of a pager to go help someone
who quite possibly you’ve never met before seems crazy to some people, but for
me it’s the norm. Being on the fire department for 6 years now has taught me so
much about life. There really is no greater feeling in the world than helping
someone, even a total stranger on what could possibly be one of the worst, or
scariest moments of their life. Being that light in the darkness for them. It
is truly a hard feeling to describe.
During the summer
of 2014 I got sent to the fire academy in order to receive my firefighter 1
certificate. During this 3-month certification class, I distinctly remember a
lecture on the history of the fire service including major fires in the UK. As
expected, the class went in depth with techniques on firefighting in America,
but not anywhere else. Specifically, about London, we were taught about the
great fire, but nothing else. My only other knowledge about the London Fire
Brigade was that the trucks had funny sirens. That was all.
Coming here with
just that knowledge along with this goal in mind drove me to want to learn as
much as I could about the fire service here. Yes, one can just “google” the
differences, but to immerse yourself in real life brings about experiences that
will last you a lifetime; which in fact it did.
It was a cold
January Saturday afternoon when I took the tube over to SoHo where the nearest
firehouse to me was located. As I walked up to the firehouse, I saw the door
was open as the truck had just gotten back from a shout (what they call an
emergency call here in the UK). Excitement filled me as I walked up and
introduced myself to the officer who had just stepped off the truck. As soon as
I told him that “I’m a firefighter visiting from America” his face lit up as
the rest of the crew started to gather around and introduce themselves to me. I
explained to them my purpose for visiting the station, and what I wanted to
learn. With open arms they invited me to stay and offered me an in depth
overview of the fire service in the UK.
During the next two
hours at the fire station, they showed me every nut and bolt on all 4 trucks inside.
We first talked about the equipment on board, what’s similar and what’s
different. Next we had conversations about the daily life, firefighting
tactics, building construction, training, lingo, and gear. They even went out
of their way to pull a truck outside in busy SoHo, blocked off a sidewalk and
showed me (and let me try) to connect a fire hydrant to a fire truck here in
London! I was like a kid in a candy store!
The two hours
concluded by them being dispatched to a shout, but not before I was able to
express my gratitude to the crew for taking time out of their day to show me
around. Sitting on the tube on the way home made me think about this unique
experience and how thankful I was to have had this opportunity. Although UK
firefighters think American firefighters fight fire with axes rather than
water, the main thing I took away besides the difference between tactics and
equipment is that what remains the same; the heart behind the job.
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