FIREFIGHTERS from Dawlish Fire Station recently spent an evening at a local rugby club for a training night, spearheaded by one of their own.

Firefighter Daniel Force led the training, which saw the crew undertake a breathing apparatus (BA) exercise involving hazardous materials.

Due to Dan's links with Teignmouth Rugby Club, Dawlish's finest were able to again use Teignmouth Rugby Club as a venue.

On arrival, the crew were faced with missing persons in an unknown atmosphere, with the possibility of a hazardous substance present.

Decked out in BA equipment, FF Waller and FFD Dolley were sent in to the smoke logged building with a hose reel jet and a Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC).

The crew were able to smoke the building out completely, to give the most realistic practice for search and rescue techniques.

While the crew were searching for casualties, FF Dodd, FF Farley, FFD Welsh and WM Langdell were preparing a decontamination area for the BA wearers, for when they exited the building.

The crew soon located the casualty next to a hazardous substance that had spilled onto the floor.

While one operative was checking the casualty, the other was relaying the details of the substance back to Entry Control - FFD Stevens.

The substance could, therefore, be looked up on the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) and the correct decontamination procedure implemented.

Incident Commander Kramer was then told that another person had been seen escaping the hazardous area and was missing in a lower part of the building.

A second BA crew comprised of FF Farley and FFD Welsh were put to work in a pitch black, low ceiling basement room, to search for the other casualty.

Once all crews were out safely, everyone went through the correct procedures for decontamination, so we could all see and discuss the full procedure from start to finish.

'Thank you to Teignmouth Rugby Club for the use of the space again,' a spokesman for Dawlish Fire Station said.

'If you are interested in what we do and would like to know more about a possible career in the Fire Service, then please get in touch via messenger, or pop into station on a Wednesday evening between 7 and 9pm' the spokesman added.