Retained in Terms of Incidents Attended

[Airze]

Hi guys, just considering if I ever did retained at my local station.

Was wondering what actual incidents you attend, I know retained are fully trained as full-time. But was wondering as with my local station which is one pump full-time and other pump retained...

Do you attend high rises if needed, or would they leave that to full-time crews?

Are you just called out for smaller incidents or just for support for full-time crews?

I remember before my mate at the station said they attended a house fire before with suspected persons reported, but he didn't say if that was in support of the full-time crew or if they were out on another call.

Thanks

[Luminoki]

Yes you will go to anything that a fulltimw truck would go to ( bar any jobs that your rds doesnt have skills on such as line or water rescue ) that includes high rises if they’re on/near the stations ground. You could also be first in attendance to these jobs, ive been first to what was a smoke alarm actuating with no signs of fire but it turned into a house fire persons reported where we rescued a woman from her bedroom. The second truck in attendance to that was a full time machine from the next town over as our WT was stuck at a bin fire

[Matt]

You will find dependant in areas that some retained stations are probably more skilled at certain incident types due to the nature of their areas they cover, they might so 20 RTC's to every 3 a wholetime station does possibly.

Some stations where they are a retained truck on a 2 pump wholetime station might get alot of standby on their own station and not turn a wheel but then a similar station with 1 wholetime and 2 retained they pick up alot more.

All depends on the risk in the station area as to what you will get but you will be mobilised to everything but like Luminoki says providing you have skills although thinks like water rescue to a basic level are standard around here now, think its only when it comes to some special appliances although lots around here are retained crewed.

[Airze]

Thanks guys that's a great help there, appreciate the quick feedback. 😁

[TandA]

I am at a fairly rural, quiet retained station but over time, apart from the bread and butter rtcs, farm and house fires, I have been first in attendance at a high rise, a prison cell fire, hospitals, water rescues, a hazmat, a high voltage electricity accident etc.  You can, and will, get anything and everything you are trained for.  Most of the above were picked up either on standby at a WT station but a couple came on our own ground.

[Airze]

That's brilliant and great to know so thanks for that, definitely makes retained seem more worth going for etc.

[Matt]

My mates been in 40+ years as retained, not much he hasn't seen, there on PDA's for prisons, some fast roads and nasty RTC's, stacks come autumn, have a first responder car, anything kicks off in the city and they do end up after hoping along on standby, high volume support station, 2 cities either side of them so could go over the border just to name some of it then other stations of similar size might get a few fires and RTC's and that's it but the risk on the station ground could be a gas terminal from the north sea.

Be prepared to put in the hours, might get nothing for weeks other times you might be out several times a day, can often seem that you are giving alot to receive not a lot for those money driven but its what you are giving back the community and the skills you learn and take with you to your other employment if you have any and what you bring to the job i.e. might attend a job at a house and you maybe a builder so you might know way to do something better.

It will soon become a way of life juggling keeping the appliance on the run versus nipping into town for that bit of shopping or a pint.

[HB2016]

I'm also RDS at a fairly busy 2 pump station in my service - in a group with no wholetime appliances at all. Our closest back up is around 12 minutes away (if it's a prompt turn out) and closest wholetime about 25 minutes. As others have said, been mobilised to just about everything. I think I actually respond to more calls at my RDS station than my wholetime. If you think - at work, you're there for 2 days and 2 nights for most services whilst some RDS ff's put in 120+ hours a week.

It can rule your life a bit if you let it and can certainly make things a bit frosty between partners and employers but it's a great job.

As Matt said, quite often I find some of my RDS colleagues more useful than my wholetime ones! with mechanics, electricians, carpenters etc all able to provide a wealth of knowledge to an incident to bring it to a conclusion.

[Dangly1]

It doesn't matter what incident type you get called to, services will mobilise the nearest fire appliances as necessary and if as mentioned above the nearest ones are retained/on call and lack specialist skills required or require support such as property fires or persons trapped road traffic collisions for example, then wholetime appliances will be mobilised at the same time as additional resources.

I've never known on call crewed appliances to not pick up incidents purely because they're an on call crew but happy to stand corrected as different brigades do run things differently. 

[Matt]

Other than specialist appliances the only other one that springs to mind in water rescue training but locally all are basic trained in that now.  Cannot think of any differences anymore.

[Airze]

Thanks everyone really appreciate all this feedback, it's been brilliant thanks

While we're here then, can anyone tell me what retained training was like compared to full-time, for those who did the actual retained not full-time training? As I know it's split into evenings generally for those who have a job in the day etc.

[Carl]

You could always start a new topic

[Airze]

Yes you're right sorry lol

[BRV]

On 02/01/2021 at 22:00, Dangly1 said:

It doesn't matter what incident type you get called to, services will mobilise the nearest fire appliances

They will mobilise the quickest appliance to arrive on scene. The software (in my brigade at least) takes into account the current status of the appliance and has a built in delay to the time it would take that appliance to arrive at the incident.

For example available WT station has a factor of one minute and thirty seconds (01:30) delay whereas a retained station has a delay factor of five minutes (05:00) 

So depending on run times to the incident the WT will get mobilised as they don’t have the 5 minute penalty 

[Dangly1]

Sorry yes worded it badly!

I think most brigades use GPS mobilising now which will mobilise the nearest appliance attendance time response wise, as you said there is the inbuilt mobilising delay whether it's a WT or on call appliance.

[Airze]

Thanks guys this really helps so much, wondering as my local is WT with an RT pump, think it's average like 2 shouts a week perhaps for the RT so wondered, how busy I'd actually be when I'm available etc. Thanks

[HB2016]

@AirzeThe thing with RDS mate is that you could have 5 or 6 calls a day for a week, then nothing for two weeks. If it's a WDS/RDS station it's likely you'll get a few on station standbys too. If the RDS truck is the backup for the WDS truck (I.e. there isn't a another WDS down the road) you'll be second in to everything too so you could get some solid quality jobs even if they are few in number. I'd have a chat with the station if you can - maybe call HQ and ask for the station number/email.

[Airze]

Thanks mate, that's great to know so thanks. My local is Day Crew Plus pump and a retained pump, other WT pumps are in next towns, although they are all small local towns I guess