It would seem that a lot of people do not understand the difference between a ‘full time’ firefighter and a ‘retained’ one based on the amount of negative feedback a post shared on the Buckfastleigh Fire Station has received.
The post shared by the retained fire station said:
“To be a retained firefighter takes a certain type of person, to respond to your alerter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week takes dedication, stopping what your doing no matter what!
“However leaving a haircut half way through when your alerter goes off is on another level”.
Retained Firefighters operate a bit like the brave men and women of the lifeboat service because they respond to shouts when their pagers go off.
So this means that retained firefighters will often be working in their ‘9-5’ job or doing other ‘things’ when the call comes in – such as getting their hair cut.
On this occasion, the firefighter was in the middle of a haircut when his pager went off, meaning that he ended up with half-a-job being done on his hair.
However, it would seem that some badly informed ‘Facebookers’ just assumed that he was a full-time firefighter and that he had just decided to go for a haircut whilst on duty!
You would have thought that that the word ‘retained’ might have given it away…
Followers were also quick to make some lighthearted comments about the, well, style of the haircut even though it was half a job:
Got a blog or story for our team? Contact us anonymously using any of the contact details below. We are interested in emergency services related stories from both civilians and serving members of the emergency services, NHS or armed forces.
Our team comprises exclusively of former armed forces and emergency services personnel.
Email: emergency_services_humour@outlook.com | Follow & find us on Twitter @ES_Humour | Follow & find us on Facebook @EmergencyServicesHumour
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of our readers.
And remember, if you have a service, product or job vacancy that you would like to promote to our large readership, then you can buy advertising space in our articles.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
This could be the start of a new trend.