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On Station Pranks!


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So I’m about to start my first shift this week and I’m sure the lads on station will have a few pranks to pull!! Not wanting to be left out I wondered what pranks you had pulled or sen pulled on station? 

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2 hours ago, Cardiff_Fire said:

Currently our WM is having the sweetners in his tea increased by 1 a tour. We've just hit 8 and not a word.

My old Guvnors pet hate was wearing a white shirt. He' d grumble after 1 shout the neck would be dirty and what a stupid idea white shirts were for op staff

Perhaps he was right. But not as stupid as he was as he would not even be wearing his shirt on.a shout. He would leave it in the watchroom next to the teleprinter which had multi ply paper separated by carbon paper.

As soon as his pump had left the station, someone would take a section of carbon paper and rub it inside his collar and sleeves. This went on for at least 10/15 years. He had no idea until told the truth on his retirements do speech?

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I remember 2 older hands, Jon and Terry who incidentally started at the same time, Jon on Greens and Terry on Blues. Jon was as keen as mustard and was the "Aerial Guru" for the station. He would on a weekly basis take a sample of hydraulic oil from the aerial appliance tank and leave it to settle over night, ensuring there was no water content floating on top the day after. For 30 years there was never a fault or anything to report as the tank did what it was supposed to do, keep water out. 

However, Terry on Blues, who followed Greens used to place a few drops of water in the sample that Jon had taken the previous shift. This went on for 30 years with Jon constantly putting in defects and having every man an dog believe that the system wasn't fit for purpose and was letting water in. 

Sadly Jon passed away soon after retirement and I never got to know if he ever discovered that Terry was the culprit and had spent 30 years contaminating Jons sample of hydraulic oil. 

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The best I've heard was an old school guvnor who expressed concern that his bike ride in seemed to be getting harder each time: coincidentally the station sand stock seemed to be entering his bicycle frame in increasing amounts each shift...

The worst I've heard was a kipper wrapped around an exhaust manifold with chicken mesh....

others include (in the old days) stones inside hubcaps, straps removed from chair seat bases and the classic second remote for the TV....

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Removing a cricket that was destined to be the station snake's supper and placing in behind the defuser of a light fitting in the Guvnor's room was a class wind-up. The poor little thing chirruped all night. It wasn't  that loud that you could hear it during the early evening, but it drove him mad in the quieter small hours. It survived both night shifts and the Guvnor was a wreck the second morning. He'd turned the room inside out at around 2am looking for the 'escaped' cricket, not thinking to look up.

We did this about three times before he found the guys on a step ladder in his room in the act planting a fourth escapee! :) 

Happy days (for some of us!!)

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Years back, typewriter keys changed over, a killer for one fingered typing subs

Firestorm may not care to admit recalling this one, the dual seal (turn u side down and shake) foam extinguisher, one half of the mix in the toilet cistern, one in the pan, bingo

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We used to have manual mouth operated Railway horns on every appliance.... Im sure you can guess how they worked? it was common practice to put the mouthpiece end up your bum then put a defective tag on it leaving it at strategic places like the mess deck. Firefighters being firefighters would always want to fix things and the first thing they would do is yank it off the table and giving it a good old hearty blast to see if it was working 

The times that trick was played!xD

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Great thread! So many favourites to chose from....

  • Putting the wm office tv onto one of those sex chat call-in channels, turining it up full volume, then hiding remote or reversing the batteries.
  • Hole punch contents into shoes/pockets.
  • Entire contents of washing machine sized industrial shredder into a locker.
  • Nicely folding a shirt like it’s just out the packet, then soaking under the tap before leaving in freezer.
  • Rubbing a cut jalapeño around the rim of a mug or water bottle.
  • Self tanning lotion mixed into a shower gel bottle then left in the showers.
  • A wireless door bell hidden above the ceiling tiles of an office
  • A smiley face drawn in chinagraph onto a helmet visor works a treat, it may not get pulled down for ages so difficult to find the culprit.
  • All our coffee mugs are left on top of a high kitchen cupboard, so they routinely get filled to the brim with water then carefully replaced. I managed to soak the SM with that once and he had a major sense of humour failure!

The things you do at a quiet station to pass the time...??

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A smiley face? That must be the PG version!

I remember a school visit with 30 excited children seeing the fire engine and our fire kit, look kids we have a visor to protect our faces...at which point the visor is pulled down with a rather large phallus drawn proudly on it...priceless and luckily teachers saw the funny side!

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The chinagraph on visor gag just keeps on giving. 

Clingfilm, tightly stretched over between a door frame (camera phone and victim required). Or alternatively, over toilet bowl.... 

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2 hours ago, OscarTango said:

Clingfilm, tightly stretched over between a door frame

Amateur. Just carry a roll of cellotape around with you and deploy at will, has same effect. 

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We once had a guy who put shoe polish on the inside rim of all our helmets, including the officers who were not impressed when they discovered we all had a black band of polish on our foreheads after drill. The funny part of this was that the guy actually put polish on his own and denied all knowledge. There was only one firefighter on the watch who didn't have polish on his forehead and that was the probationer. His face was a picture as all fingers pointed at him. Watching him trying to explain it in what can only be described as Swahili was legend.  

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I did the boot polish trick to a mate of mine once. We joined together and used to wind each other up all the time so one day I decided to cover the rim of his helmet in polish. The timing couldn't have been better as we had a shout half an hour later. It was just an AFA at a school but he took his helmet off outside while attempting to chat up a group of teachers. It took him a bit of time to work out why his usual charm didn't have its desired effect! 

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A certain trainer at STC was returning to his base posting, immediately prior to departure a computer whizz managed to replicate the helmet badge to perfect size, and replace the L***** Fire Brigade lettering with 'Little Fat B*stard' in the exact same font. Said replacement was prit sticked on the front of his helmet, went unnoticed for two months.....

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The mod has made a new just as bad one since then both, of them were made at Kineton ammo depot, using the crews on duty, don't think actors need worry about them competing for roles  

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