Training the Fire Service

The newly formed North East Documentary Group of the Royal Photographic Society had an outing today to the Northumberland Fire Service training facility near Cramlington.

Five of us were there watching the trainees going through a gruelling 2 hour session. They need a lot of strength and commitment to do the work. These are all men and women who have taken time out from their day jobs to train as retained fire officers.

We were not able to go in close of course but it was great fun trying to find interesting ways to compose the images.  I chose this one because it shows both the determination to do well and the busyness of the place.

The 2 hours passed very quickly. Then I did a supermarket shop in an attempt to return to some sort of normality after the festival. We had approx 450 bookings this time which is just excellent.

PS Today's training did not involve any actual fires which was a bit disappointing but the smoke might have made photography more difficult.