emergency services – Page 12 – The NEN

Paramedic’s joy of being reunited with daughter following COVID separation

These pictures show the incredible moment a Scottish Ambulance Service paramedic was reunited with his daughter after he chose to live separately to protect his family during the Coronavirus.

Jamie Brannan, 41, of Newburgh, Fife, said he made the decision on March 27 to keep his wife, Louise, and daughter, Jessica, aged six, safe during the peak of COVID-19.

With restrictions eased in Scotland over the last month, Jamie, based at Perth Ambulance Station, decided it was time to come home and was reunited with his daughter on June 10.

Jamie explained: “When we began attending more and more suspected Covid cases, I decided the best thing to do was separate myself from my family.

“Being reunited with my family was the most amazing feeling. My wife and I have been together for 15 years now, 14 of which we have lived together. So being separated for so long was such a shock to us both.

“But I have to say, and I don’t think my wife will mind me saying, the biggest reward of all was getting that first hug from my daughter. Being able to hold her again was amazing and emotional. It felt as though we had Been separated for years. Moving out was such a difficult decision but it was also the correct one.

“I’d also like to say I’ve heard many stories from across the service of staff making sacrifices. All with the aim of protecting their loved ones and continuing the amazing work they do every day within the service.”

Two years ago, Louise became very sick with sepsis, which resulted in her slipping into septic shock. Jamie found her unconscious, and after she was rushed to hospital, he was told she would likely die.

While she bravely recovered, she remains immunosuppressed, meaning she has a weakened immune system.

Jamie added: “Thankfully she was strong enough to fight the infection and woke up from an induced coma after 24 hours. However, she remains immunosuppressed so, when we began attending more and more suspected Covid cases, I decided the best thing to do was separate myself from my family.”

Jamie said he was in a fortunate position where he had a flat to move into, and added: “The flat is in the same village so I was able to have mostly daily visits when I wasn’t on shift.

“Keeping my distance of course and avoiding all contact. I never entered the house and sometimes, if it was raining, I would have to stand outside and talk from the other side of the window.

“This was by far the hardest aspect of it all – being separated from my family. I remember going to visit for the first time and my daughter ran over to hug me and I had to stop her.

“I can honestly say I’ll never forget the look on her face – one of confusion and sadness. Luckily she grew to understand why I was doing what I was doing and it wasn’t forever.”

Death in Service: paramedic dies of coronavirus

A paramedic has died from Covid-19, the Scottish Ambulance Service has confirmed. The staff member has not been named.

Pauline Howie, Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “It is with very great sadness to report the news that one of our dear colleagues from the Scottish Ambulance Service has tragically passed away after contracting COVID-19.

“The staff member, a Paramedic in the West Region, sadly passed away in hospital on Saturday (May 2). On behalf of everyone at SAS, I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to the family. Our focus will be on supporting them during this very difficult time.

“I would also like to thank our NHS Scotland colleagues for the compassionate care they have shown our friend during their illness.

“I know there will be many people within the Service who will be affected by this very tragic news and we are working to support our staff. ”

Out of respect for the family, no further details will be provided at this stage.

Fire Service ready to protect Scotland’s communities during coronavirus pandemic

Scotland’s Chief Fire Officer has reassured communities that the fire and rescue service is taking all necessary measures to minimise disruption to its emergency response amid the coronavirus (COVIDー19) pandemic.

Martin Blunden, Chief Officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), said “robust contingency plans” are in place to manage increasing levels of sickness and self-isolation among firefighters and staff.

This includes the temporary suspension of the Service’s Home Fire Safety Visit programme; halting attendance at external events; and inviting recently retired firefighters and specialist staff to return to the frontline to cover potential absences.

Chief Officer Blunden said: “This is an unprecedented time for Scotland and the whole the UK, for ourselves as a Service, and for our emergency service partners.

“We’ve been working hard over the last ten days to put plans in place to ensure our staff are safe, and that we’re able to supply an emergency response for the people of Scotland who require our assistance and to support our partners.

“As a service we have already taken a number of steps to protect all of our staff and the public, as the coronavirus pandemic develops.

“This includes instructing many staff across the country to work from home; stopping our Home Fire Safety Visits, aside from carefully managed very high risk visits; limiting access to community fire stations to essential personnel only; and making sure that we don’t attend any external events outside of fire stations, including some training events.

“As well as protecting staff and the public, these measures help to ensure that we can continue to provide a 999 response when required.”

Speaking of the potential impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the Service’s core emergency response, CO Blunden said: “We continue to work to attend every 999 call that we receive.

“However, should we have a significant staff absence, our highly trained Operations Control staff will assess calls that we receive to make sure that we attend the calls where we can save life, or where we can prevent significant damage to buildings or properties.

“They will make that assessment, and we may eventually have to place calls into a queue until resources can be made available.

“But I can assure you that for every 999 call where you need our response, we will attend, and we will do everything we can to assist and save life.”

He added: “To minimise the impact on our emergency response during the course of this pandemic, we are also looking at ways to invite people who have recently retired – firefighters and others with specialist skills – to come back and cover any predicted shortages.

“I’ve been blown away by the number of people who have already contacted the Service, and we will have more on this soon.”

Who are the Key Workers?

What is a key worker? The UK Government gives the following information:

If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision:

This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and childcare

This includes childcare, support and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.

Key public services

This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.

Local and national government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response, or delivering essential public services, such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.

Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).

Public safety and national security

This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.

Transport

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.

Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.

If workers think they fall within the critical categories above, they should confirm with their employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, their specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.

If your school is closed, then please contact your local authority, who will seek to redirect you to a local school in your area that your child, or children, can attend.

We are grateful for the work of teachers and workers in educational settings for continuing to provide for the children of the other critical workers of our country. It is an essential part of our national effort to combat this disease.

Be Aware campaign targets false fire alarms

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is continuing its efforts to reduce thousands of needless false fire alarms by launching an information campaign.

According to the latest statistics, firefighters responded to a total of 28,713 such incidents over the course of 2019 – resulting in around 54,000 unnecessary blue light journeys.

Fire Alarm Systems are designed to provide an early warning of fire so that members of the public have ample time to exit a building and make their way to a place of safety.

They form a vital part of any fire safety strategy – and remain one of the most effective ways to protect customers, staff and any public or commercial premises from the effects of fire.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of signals from these systems are not generated by fire but other causes such as a fault in the system or cooking, steam, dust, smoking or vaping.

This can lead to crews being turned out unnecessarily to what is a false alarm – otherwise known as an unwanted fire alarm signal (UFAS).

The 28,713 UFAS calls in 2019 represented 31 per cent of all incidents attended by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service within non-domestic properties such as hotels, shops, residential care homes and hospitals. This campaign is intended to reach everyone who uses, visits or works in any of these premises.

The Service continues to work with partners and is now launching a new “Be Aware” campaign designed to promote public awareness of simple steps that can be taken when visiting or staying within our hotels, guest houses and other accommodation/residential premises to reduce false alarms.

These steps include:

Do not mistake fire alarm break glass points for GREEN door exit points
Do not smoke or vape inside the building or in your room
Take care when using toasters, kettles, dryers, straighteners
Steam can set off alarms, so keep bathroom doors closed and extractor fans on when using baths, showers and sinks
Never remove, cover up or damage smoke or heat detector heads to prevent them activating
Know your escape route and the location of your closest fire exit. Never wedge fire doors open and close doors behind you when evacuating.

Assistant Chief Officer Ross Haggart is the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Director of Prevention and Protection. He said: “We as a Service encourage the use of automatic fire detection as it helps save lives and protect buildings.

“However, false alarms, such as those that are caused by system faults or as a consequence of unintended actions, are an unnecessary drain on our resources and present undue risk for our firefighters and the public from appliances responding to these calls under blue light conditions.

“For businesses and other organisations it can result in an impact on costs including lost revenue and the real danger of staff becoming complacent.”

He added: “We are committed to working with duty holders and, where appropriate, improving management arrangements within premises to reduce the number of unwanted fire alarm signals.

“In addition, it is important to raise awareness with the public in how they can play their part when visiting or staying in those premises.

“That is why we are launching this campaign to encourage members of the public and staff to “Be Aware” of their actions in buildings and how these can help reduce false alarms and prevent fire crews from responding to UFAS incidents.

“This will greatly assist organisations in managing their fire alarm systems to reduce business disruption and the number of unnecessary blue light journeys.

“However, we should make clear that through robust and flexible strategic planning, our crews are always ready to respond to any incident to keep our communities safe.”

Five deliberate fires started EVERY SINGLE DAY in Edinburgh

Firefighters in Edinburgh were called to tackle five deliberate fires EVERY SINGLE DAY during Spring last year – double the number than during the same period in 2018.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews were mobilised to a total of 258 incidents of deliberate fire-raising within the Scottish capital between March and April 2019.

This is an increase of 100 per cent on the year before, when SFRS crews in Edinburgh were turned out to 128 needless blazes during the same period.

These fires were largely comprised of outdoor incidents impacting grasslands and refuse, but also included building and vehicle fires.

This “shocking” rise in is placing lives at risk, warned SFRS Director of Prevention and Protection, Assistant Chief Officer Ross Haggart.

ACO Haggart said: “We take a zero-tolerance approach to deliberate fire setting and it is a small minority of individuals who are potentially putting themselves, our firefighters and innocent bystanders at risk of serious harm and injury.

“Make no mistake – fire can cause injury and death, it can be devastating to properties, businesses and the environment.

“Last year, witnessed a shocking rise in deliberate fire-raising during the Spring period.

“These incidents are a needless drain on our resources and can impact on our response to genuine emergencies – where lives might very well be at risk.

“The fact that our firefighters are called to thousands of deliberately set fires each year is completely unacceptable.

ACO Haggart was speaking as Scotland’s national fire and rescue services launched its #SpringSafety campaign. Across Scotland, the SFRS recorded a staggering 3,658 incidents of deliberate fire-raising during Spring last year – an increase of 97 per cent.

ACO Haggart warned that the SFRS will continue to do everything in its power to help Police Scotland trace those risking the safety of communities across Scotland.

He said: “It absolutely goes without saying that we prefer to prevent fires – not fight fires.

“But let me be very clear – we operate a strict zero tolerance approach to deliberate fire raising. It is reckless, selfish, and can have devastating consequences.

“We will continue to work very closely with our police and local authority partners to provide evidence that will ensure those responsible are identified and held to account for their actions.

“It is vital that we continue to remind people that deliberate fire setting is a crime and that a criminal record can affect future life and job opportunities – a price that can be easily avoided.”

Anyone with information about deliberate fire-raising should contact the free and confidential Crimestoppers helpline on 0800 555 111.

Tag: emergency services