BBC News Feature Transcript.
Jerry:
My name’s Jerry O’Brien and I’m in Deputy Chief Fire Officer of
Avon Fire and Rescue Service. Find out why I’m cycling down this
long, hot, dusty highway in the Gambia later in Points West.
Male Presenter:
Now, we leave this cold West Country winter behind us and travel
3,000 miles south to sunnier climes, to the Gambia in fact, where
one of our local firefighters has just completed a gruelling trek
of hundreds of miles in up to 35 degree heat.
Female Presenter:
It’s all to honour a remarkable link-up between the Avon and
Gambian fire services. It will be featured on the BBC’s ‘Inside Out
West’ programme at 7pm tonight, but here’s a preview.
Reporter:
The beginning of a long trek across the Gambia with a few
hundred dusty and arid miles ahead.
Jerry:
It’s very, very, very hot. It’s incredible, its not even half-past
eight and the heat is very, very difficult. Ok, here we go!
Reporter:
It’s an arduous journey, stopping at all the country’s fire
stations and its to show Avon’s commitment to the Gambian fire
service. These are Gambian fire recruits with a familiar site in
the background – it’s an old Avon fire truck. Over the years we’ve
sent thirty to the Gambia where they’re still on active service.
This is a training exercise and almost everything in use here has
come from the West Country.
Jerry:
Before we had the partnership up and running they wouldn’t have had
protective clothing, they wouldn’t have had portable pumps, the
vehicles themselves. They were working on 1950’s technologies and
there’s no doubt about it: it’s made a tremendous difference to the
people of the Gambia.
Reporter:
There’s now 1,000 firefighters in the Gambia and 12 fire
stations and each has accommodation, which is a huge bonus,
especially in poor, remoter areas.
Firefigher Adama Sanyang:
We are living like people in the capital. Electricity is free
and available for us at any minute and we have clean water.
Reporter:
But it’s not just about fire trucks. Schools and family groups are
now being helped – it’s al built up over 16 years.
David Hutchings:
All we do is, where possible, provide support and assistance if
we can readily find it available.
Jerry:
Hello lorry! Thank you for the dust!
Reporter:
For Jerry O’Brien its goodbye tarmac as he heads into the Gambian
bush: find out if he makes it on Inside Out West tonight.
Female Reporter:
On Inside Out West in half and hour: We track down the Avon fire
engines saving lives in the Gambia.
Hello and welcome to Inside Out West. I’m Josie D’Arby with the
West’s firefighters. Follow that fire truck! We have, all the way
to the Gambia. But what on earth are Avon’s engines doing in
Africa?
They’re a familiar site on our West Country’s streets aren’t
they screaming to the rescue. But there’s as familiar on the
streets of Africa – yes I know, I couldn’t believe it either! But,
if your house is on fire in the Gambia, it’s an Avon fire engine
that comes to the rescue. From the Gambia, Scott Ellis has this
report.
Scott Ellis:
You’re 3,000 miles from home but there’s something familiar in the
background. Behind these tuneful fire recruits is a seasoned
veteran: an Avon fire truck on service in the Gambia, a small
African country with a big, proud fire brigade.
Gambian Firefighter:
I love to be a firefigher. To save lives is the most important
thing to me.
Scott Ellis:
The word Avon may have all but disappeared in the West Country,
but not so in the Gambia. Its on their fire trucks, its on their
uniforms and as we’ll see, when the heats on so to are the Avon
helmets. These recruits aren’t the only ones on the run in the sun.
So too is Jerry O’Brien, he’s Avon’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer and
he’s just set off on a gruelling journey across the Gambia – that’s
300 arid and dusty miles.
Jerry O’Brien:
It’s very, very, very hot. It’s incredible, its not even half-past
eight and the heat is very, very difficult. Ok, here we go!
Scott Ellis:
The idea is to raise awareness and money for this unique fire
partnership and to call in to all 12 fire stations in the
Gambia.
Jerry O’Brien:
How are you? Nice to meet you Joe.
Here we are at Serekunda Fire Station in the Gambia. Prior to
the partnership between Avon Fire and Rescue and the Gambia Fire
and Ambulance Service there was no fire station here. Population of
around 350,000 people, roughly the same as Bristol, and they had no
fire and ambulance cover at all. So here we’ve got an ambulance
donated by the Red Cross, two regular fire engines and straight of
the ship, a rescue tender that a few weeks ago was driving around
the street of Bristol and Avonmouth. Absolutely fantastic, I can’t
believe it. 1989, you can see the body work had seen better days
because of the terrible roads, but the first turn of the key and
away she goes! Its made it worth coming just to see that.
Scott Ellis:
Even with these trucks it can be hard work being a firefighter
here in the Gambia. Sometimes there’s a shortage of fuel, there’s
not that much water, it’s a very hot country and the capital here
is the size of Bristol but only has three water hydrants. Getting
to fires can be difficult because large areas have no street names
and I’m told once you get there it can be chaos, as dozens of
people pile on to the trucks trying to help out.
So to the sharp end: Jerry’s scorching tour of the Gambia is
about to get even hotter and the Avon kit is about to get the
ultimate test.
Jerry:
This is what a scrub fire would absolutely be like. Right, they’re
using the spray so they can get closer to the fire because the
spray protects them from the heat. Once they get close enough to
it, they can change from the spray to a jet and start beating down
the fire.
Scott Ellis:
They’re all lessons that could save lives and there’s been a
reminder about the perils of fighting fires. This is the remote
village of Canelai, where a scrub fire has recently claimed a
firefighters life. This is a day of remembrance and of deep
sorrow for the firefighers widow.
Jerry:
When a scrub fire develops it can create its own wind, which
makes it easy for the fire to develop all around you and then the
firefighters can’t get in to help and, tragically, it seems that is
what has happened on this occasion.
Scott Ellis:
A final prayer where the body was found. Back at the training
ground and the fire is out.
Jerry:
The guys and girls are doing a great job and everything was working
fine. Before we had the partnership up and running they wouldn’t
have had protective clothing, they wouldn’t have had portable
pumps, the vehicles themselves. They were working on 1950’s
technologies and there’s no doubt about it: it’s made a tremendous
difference to the people of the Gambia.
Scott Ellis:
It’s not long before Jerry’s trans-Gambia express is picking up
pace and popularity.
Jerry:
It’s fantastic. Everybody wants to be associated with the Gambia
Fire and Ambulance Service because in a country where everything is
so much in need, its one of the services that’s actually in the
ascendance. It’s apolitical, its just there doing its job, 24/7,
365. It looks like we’re making reasonable progress this
morning.
Scott Ellis:
in fact, the great Avon and Gambia fire link up goes back 16 years
and its Jerry’s wingman who gets the credit for starting it all
off. This is David Hutchings, he used to be Avon’s Chief Fire
Officer. Back in the 1980;s he ha come on holiday to the Gambia and
he got to know local firefighters. He remembers that they called
him in his hotel one night back in 1989; there had been a car crash
and a family were trapped under a lorry.
Dave Hutchings:
The mother and father and four children all perished in the
vehicle. The ropes and equipment the firefighters were using was
antiquated, there was no mechanical equipment. It was at that
point, on my return to the UK, that I thought there had to be
something we could do from an area like Avon to help a brigade like
this.
Scott Ellis:
What David did was raise money to ship these old Avon engines to
the Gambia. Because of strict European emission laws they would
have been scrapped in the UK after 10 years but they still have
plenty of life in them and 30 have been sent over the years. The
Gambian Government has responded by investing in 12 new fire
stations and there’s now 1000 firefighters – in the 1980’s there
were just 70 with only 2 vehicles. Every station has accommodation
for families and are at the centre of town and village life.
Firefigher Adama Sanyang:
We are living like people in the capital. Electricity is free
and available for us at any minute and we have clean water.
Everything that we need – toilets, bathrooms, kitchens – everything
is fine.
Scott Ellis:
No wonder everybody knows Dave Hutchings – from the Gambian top
brass to an upbeat version of our Women’s Institute.
SO you like David then?
Woman 1:
Yeah!
Scott Ellis:
It’s not all fire trucks and hoses; these women have been helped
out with sewing machines, many of which sat for years on the shelf
of Dave’s local pub in South Gloucestershire. They are now helping
hard-up families in the Gambia.
Women 2:
We can now do sewing, we tie-and-die and make soap and sell it,
so its now easier to buy food. Everything is coming easier to us
now.
Scott Ellis:
Schools are being helped too and let’s face it – it’s hard to say
‘no’ if this lot ask for help! They’re being sent old desks and
tables from the West Country as well as this new delivery, an
upright piano and computers from Bristol University that will be
put to good use in Gambia’s secondary schools.
Jerry:
Directly it has absolutely nothing to do with fire, except for the
fact that fire is a community based service, that’s what we’re here
for. These people will be the firefighters, politicians. Doctors,
teachers and lawyers of tomorrow. The smallest thing that otherwise
would have gone into a landfill in England can come here and be the
difference between getting a decent education and not. It’s just
breath-taking.
Scott Ellis:
It is an amazing achievment but where does it all end?
Dave Hutchings:
We don’t see ourselves as some panacea to cure the ills of the
Gambia – I think its important to say that. All we do is, where
possible, we provide support and assistance if we can readily find
it available.
Scott Ellis:
Which is why this double-act must complete its sponsored mission
across the Gambia. Shipping costs are rising and they need more
money to keep the fire link going.
Jerry:
Hello lorry! Thank you for the dust!
Scott Ellis:
For Jerry, hundreds of miles of dirt road lie ahead, but one
week later Jerry arrived in the furthest fire station away from the
capital, and not without injury.
Jerry:
For a number of reasons I managed to come off my bike and collide
with probably the only hard part of road! So I’ve got a couple of
stitches to remind me of my visit.
Scott Ellis:
Mission accomplished: the partnership is as strong as ever. But
make no mistake, it’s a tough life in the Gambia: these
firefighters earn just £30 a month. The people you meet never stop
smiling and, in part, its down to a sixteen year old friendship
between the West Country and this tiny West African state.
Josie D’Arby;
Scott Ellis with the Avon firefighters who put the Wombles to
shame!
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