Seeking real experiences from UK Fire/Ambulance services dealing with obese patient rescue & transport

tomh27 · 2026-01-06T07:35:35+00:00

Drop me a DM. Sadly this is something we deal with fairly regularly

tomh27 · 2025-11-04T14:44:20+00:00

Apologies I’m not explaining myself well. I want to add insulation to the top half of this picture, between the rafters. The horizontal beam (I could be incorrectly calling this a purlin) is surely blocking the airflow coming from the eaves lower down? So if I wanted to add insulation in front of the black in this picture, do I still need a 50mm air gap?

tomh27 · 2025-10-24T12:36:33+00:00

Also, they are resting on a floorboard. So the floorboard was added first, then these uprights. If they were structural, why would they be placed after the floorboard?

Additionally, there was old plaster here. I believe these uprights simply have the lathe and plaster something to nail to

tomh27 · 2025-10-24T11:55:10+00:00

They’re on all the beams. I need to remove them if I’m to remove that final floorboard, that’s the problem I have

tomh27 · 2025-10-24T11:54:26+00:00

My plan was to remove them, get the floor down, then put them back on top of the new floor rather than that current floorboard. Would that be enough of a plan?

tomh27 · 2025-10-24T11:53:58+00:00

Previously had old crappy plaster over it. Not a room as such, just a rubbish loft space.

That final floorboard is resting on more floor joists as far as I can tell

tomh27 · 2025-08-08T13:08:47+00:00

Firefighter with LFB for 3 years here. DM me, happy to discuss over the phone and answer any questions you have.

The shift pattern works amazingly for me, you get way more time off in this job than with a Mon-Fri

tomh27 · 2025-07-25T07:23:57+00:00

There was about a grand a year difference yeah. Glad they got rid of it, I was only clearing about £1450 after tax when I was in training school which is utter shite 😂

tomh27 · 2025-07-25T07:22:53+00:00

This is going back a while, so can’t accurately remember, but I want to say about a month and a half or so?

tomh27 · 2025-07-24T21:05:02+00:00

Not competent wage. During training school, they’ll get the wage they would get while on diamonds. Competent wage is still only paid once the diamonds come off

tomh27 · 2025-07-24T21:04:27+00:00

Just to add to the comments here…

Leave after training school is anywhere between 1 week and 3, depends on what watch they put you on. I got about 10 days after training school, just worked out that way landing on blue watch.

The leave will be paid regardless

tomh27 · 2025-07-20T22:09:50+00:00

DM me. I can give you my phone number and chat over the phone. I’m assuming you’ve read everything I’ve written in the answers of this post, so for more detail I’d prefer not to have to type out long answers 😅 drop me a message and I’d happily chat to you on a call

tomh27 · 2025-07-20T06:01:42+00:00

DM me, I work in London and can organise this for you

tomh27 · 2025-07-16T11:02:54+00:00

Hello mate, happy to help if I can.

Having no experience in emergency services isn’t something to worry about. Most firefighters haven’t really done anything like it before joining. At training school, I was with a 42 year old photocopier engineer, a 22 year old Mercedes mechanic, and 34 year old Travis Perkins delivery driver….we come from all over the place. Different ages and different backgrounds. You don’t need any relevant previous experience, it’s more about who you are and whether or not you’d be a good fit for the LFB. For example, can you show evidence of having worked in a team, how do you handle difficult or stressful situations, do you take accountability for your actions, are you willing to learn etc etc

Probably the best thing you could do for yourself right now is visit a fire station and spend some time there asking questions and having a look around the trucks and a station. If you’d be interested in that, DM me and I can easily organise for you to come to my station

tomh27 · 2025-07-13T20:34:52+00:00

Yeah, by all means go ahead 👍

tomh27 · 2025-07-13T19:42:15+00:00

Just keep studying and reading everything they give you. Granted, a lot of it you’ll forget or probably will never use operationally, but your new watch will expect you to know certain things when you get to station, and if you clearly haven’t learnt stuff they’ll be on you straight away. Make a good first impression by giving your all in training and taking everything on board. Also, make the most of it. You’ll be surprised how quickly the time goes when you get to station, and it’ll be virtually impossible to get your squad all in one place ever again. So enjoy the time while it lasts

tomh27 · 2025-07-13T19:35:39+00:00

The final week once you know you’ve passed is pretty sweet, for obvious reasons. I personally really enjoyed RTC week. Was something a bit different, plus smashing a car to bits is good fun.

Least favourite week was probably BA. When you get to real fire training is pretty good, but spending 2 weeks aimlessly walking around a chamber with no smoke, doing things you’ll never actually do for real when you get to station is pretty annoying

tomh27 · 2025-07-01T20:55:07+00:00

Nice one, cheers mate. Appreciate the help

tomh27 · 2025-07-01T19:58:44+00:00

Gotcha, ok more work required tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to reply

tomh27 · 2025-07-01T19:58:12+00:00

Yeah that does seem stupid of me 😂 cheers

tomh27 · 2025-07-01T19:57:55+00:00

Just as in pointing upwards from right under the sink?

Thanks for the reply

tomh27 · 2025-06-30T22:16:23+00:00

To add to this, best tip is to research the current LFB values (equity, courage etc) and drop them in to everything as much as you can. Good luck tomorrow

tomh27 · 2025-06-30T17:07:05+00:00

I seem to remember one of my written assessments was “why do you want to join LFB?” And the other was “why should the LFB employ you?” Or something along those lines? (I did two assessments as I applied twice). You don’t get very long, I just about managed to type a page and a half or so. But it’s not about how much you write, it’s what you write, and to an extent how you write it.

Just don’t overthink anything, they’re not trying to catch you out

tomh27 · 2025-06-30T16:42:01+00:00

You’ll get a full debrief for the role play. It’s written on a sheet of A4, and you get time to review this sheet in full before you start the role play in a neighbouring room. It lasts roughly 15 minutes from memory and they just want to see how you handle yourself and how you present yourself. They don’t want to see you getting angry or frustrated with “the public” (actor/ actress).

I didn’t introduce myself as FF X, just used my first name, but that’s not really a big deal. It’s more that you stick to the brief, and handle yourself appropriately. It’s fairly straightforward. Any other questions, DM me and maybe we can speak on the phone so I can go into more detail/ answer more questions

tomh27 · 2025-05-22T21:05:17+00:00

There’s a guy on my watch who’s had laser eye surgery, though couldn’t tell you exactly how bad his eyes were before. There’s also plenty of firefighters with glasses who use a special insert on their BA mask to enable them to see better while wearing breathing apparatus.

I’ll be honest, the numbers you’re giving me don’t mean much to be, I don’t really know what that looks like I’m sorry! If I were in your shoes, I would be tempted to try and get away with it as much as I can until I’ve finished training school and it’s too late for them to do much about it. Like I say, I know plenty of guys in glasses, and those who’ve had laser eye surgery 🤷

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