6.45: Dragged my lazy bum out of bed, got in shower and made breakfast.
Breakfast: 2 weetabix and a white coffee
Made up my packed lunch consisting of a banana, ham sandwich, Go ahead Bar and Orange squash.
Put on my new dress and scarf, I had ironed the night before and set off for the bus stop.
7.55: Got on the 67 bus on route to Birmingham City Centre. I felt very nervous on bus journey as there was bad traffic and had butterflies the whole time. Got off the bus at Aston University and walked through the new business sector is search of Vauxhall Street. To my dismay, I came to discover that there was major road works which redirected me to an alternative route which added an extra 10 minutes to my journey time. It begin snowing too, further adding anxiety to my stomach.
9.13: Arrived outside West Midlands Fire Service Headquarters on time. Quite impressed with the size of the building but also intimidated by the large reception area inside the main entrance. Went to the desk, as requested in email and asked to see "Justine Eustace, head of Public Relations". The receptionist signed me and gave me a visitors pass which I later learnt was a fob which gave me access to most rooms throughout the vicinity. (NOTE TO SELF: always keep pass on me at all times)
I was then escorted upstairs by a senior officer who was waiting for me near the desk and introduced to Justine. She sat me to my desk, with my own computer and gave me my personal log in information to access my email, incident details page and WMFS.NET account.
I was then introduced to the rest of the team who I would be working with over the three weeks.
Debbie- Communications Manager
Neil- Media Manager
Elaine- Campaign Manager
Ty- Marketing Manager
Aaron- Photography
Chris- Video Editor
Jeremy- Assistant Media Manager
Justine and Alison- Public Relations officers.
For my first day, I did most of my work alongside Neil.
First Impressions: Seemed like a friendly working environment. Received big smiles and felt instantly welcome with my nerves being put at ease. Also, it didn't seem to clicky.
9.42: Neil printed out my first incident details sheet. He explained that I had come in on a really good day to start out as at 5.02 that morning a serious fire at a Cash Converters had started on York Road, Kings Heath which was still on going when I arrived. I was instructed to read through the mobilising information in the incident log and try to get an understanding of what had happened. Due to the fire being so large this meant I had to sift through 18 pages of information. I started to highlight key points that I felt necessary and that the media may be interested in. The main points were usually printed in capitals which made it easier to digest.
- All key holders in the area had left the scene which confirmed there was no casualties.
- No press release had been issued by the police yet due to them treating the case as suspicious.
- 8 pumps on scene. Around 40 fire fighters.
- Road to remain closed all day. 70% of the building collapsed. Hazard to pedestrians.
Neil then phoned through to head fire officer at the incident to check the progress who stated he was too busy to speak at that time, but would call back later.
We had no received any photos as yet but noticed that somebody had uploaded onto Twitter through the BBC WM which had been credited to the West Midlands Fire Service so Neil was slightly confused as to where it had come from. Neil requested that I make a phone call to the BBC WM and ask to speak to their Social Media Updater. At this point I became incredulously nervous again. I decided it was best if I write up what I was going to say in my work book before hand. Heres what I wrote:
"Hello, this is Laura calling from the Press Office at the West Midlands Fire Service, would I be able to talk to whoever is in charge of updating your Twitter feed please." a man then redirected me to speak to Sarah Reynolds, which panicked me further as I had to repeat what I said before, then add in, "well could you tell me where you received the photo from please."
The outcome turned out to be from one of the fire fighters at a near by station, Highgate. I then phoned through to that station to ask for the fire fighters name which I wrote down.
I was then made to send a thank-you to the firemen via email and to the officer in charge of that station to ensure he received recognition for the photograph. They then emailed me back which some other photos they had taken. Which can be found on their Twitter Feed.
https://twitter.com/WestMidsFire
10.46: We finally received the long awaited press release from the police, so now I helped Neil to write up our own one to put on the WMFS website.
This can be found at : http://www.wmfs.net/content/fire-kings-heath
Neil then made the media voice back which can be listened to on 0871 550 0056
Voice banks are released for the local radio, newspapers and radio. They give a short synopsis of the progress of the incident at hand.
We then started to get incoming calls from local newspapers who wanted to use the photos posted on our Twitter. We confirmed to allow usage as long as WMFS were credited.
I was then introduced to another member of the media team, Jeremy Baxley. We looked over some of the other incident logs he was catching up on from the night before.
(PHOTO OF INCIDENT LOG)
We then discussed Jeremy's relationship with local journalists He explained how some push and push for names of victims, House Numbers for fires which is information that just cannot be given and how sometimes it can become difficult to separate his personal feelings for certain cases.
Data Protection Act vs Freedom of Speech.
Such as this case:
On 8th March, they were called out to a house in Stourbridge where a women had set herself on fire. It was concluded that she had mental health issues. Nothing could be released about this as it reactive not pro-active meaning they would gain nothing from it by making it public.
12.46: LUNCH
1.28: Had a meeting with Neil, Wes (head of motorway incidents) and two members of The Garden Productions Company who are currently at the research stage of a documentary they are making for the BBC on the M6 Motorway.
I was not allowed to take notes inside the meeting room or ask questions, however I gained a basic understanding of the television program in question.
The production team are planning to make a documentary on how all the organisations come together to work on accidents on the M6. These organisations include Highway Patrol, Ambulance Service, AA break down service and of course, Fire Fighters.
I do not drive, however learnt a far amount about the motorway. Here are a few examples:
- Due to mobile phones, incidents on the motorway are much harder to find as the callers are often passers by who are still on the move and due to having no landmarks when looking around find it hard to describe their location.
- In previous years, a person would make a report via the motorway phones which had location numbers on the actual box, so it was easier to track. Now they rely predominately on GPS satellites which are often incorrect and difficult to track with a moving signal. They also use Highway Agency Cameras.
- "The Clear Project"
- Special training given to those who are expected to be first on scene known as The DFA- Driver First Assist.
- Signs have a specific font which is easy to read and blue to stand out an done junction used wrong font recently which caused collisions.
Motorway has a special WMFS team:
- HASMAT Team
- Scientific support (investigate spillage)
-DIM team (Detect, Investigate, Monitor)
Garden Productions recently made "Keeping Britain Alive" and will be returning next week to work in the Fire Controls Room.
2.36: Back to reading more incident sheets and highlighting key points. Beginning to get the hang of it now.
- Went to the stock room with Alison to do some procurement. Counted uniform and sorted into sizes.
4.30: HOME
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