Firefighter Podcast

Zac Blackledge is a father, CrossFit competitor & Firefighter and also a returning guest. Zac had a STROKE whilst competing in a fitness competition & was in a place where he perhaps would never be able to return to the things he enjoyed in his life. Today Zac is once again an operational firefighter and has overcome so much in this journey back to the frontline. Useful links mentioned in...

 On 12 July 2009 at 00.38hrs Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service received a call to a fire in a public bar at 178 Dalry Road, Edinburgh.  The original seat of the fire was within the basement, in a room used as an office, with fire and smoke spreading upwards towards the flatted properties above. The initial firefighting tactical plan prioritised the rescue of residents from those flats an...

Chris Oliver is a former Special Forces Operator and Royal Marine Mountain Leader, with 16 years of combat experience.  Chris joined the military at 16 and served within the elite Special Boat Service (SBS), alongside fellow SAS directing staff Jason Fox Chris was deployed on operations to Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland, Oman, Iraq and Afghanistan, before leaving the military in 2015.  Please supp...

Steve Adams & John Aitchison are serving members of the UK International Search and Rescue team and were also part of the heavy rescue team deployed & who successfully took part in rescuing people buried under rubble in Turkey. On 6 February 2023 a 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey. The 77-strong team from UK fire and rescue services arrived in Turkey & along with four...

After a meeting of the National Joint Council (NJC) on Wednesday 8 February, fire service employers came forward with a new offer of 7% on NJC-negotiated pay rates and CPD backdated to July 2022, and a further 5% from July 2023 for all Grey Book staff.  So what will we vote ? What are the factors to consider ? And what will this mean for the future pay rates ? A ballot on the offer is now open and...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Hillary AKA Recruit 4 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test of...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Charlotte Fisher AKA Recruit 20 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimat...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Anne AKA Recruit 19  In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test of t...

Current data shows that 1 out of every 10 million lithium-ion batteries fails, this can be for a variety of reasons but the result is often uncontrolled, highly destructive & often explosive. These batteries are incredibly popular and in use all around us however, they degrade much faster than traditional batteries & when a lithium-ion battery fails it is costing lives and we are yet to fu...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Scott AKA Recruit 15 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test of t...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Faye AKA Recruit 7 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test of the...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Amelia Michelle AKA Recruit 1 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Becca Shaw AKA Recruit 5 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Jordan Barker Porter AKA Recruit 16 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ult...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Levi Delvin AKA Recruit 18 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate tes...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Danica Kennedy AKA Recruit 10 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Daniel Dolan AKA Recruit 9 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate tes...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Ross Young AKA Recruit 8  In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Rosie Clarke aka Recruit 8 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate tes...

What really happens on SAS Who Dares Wins, what do they cut out of the show & how hard was It really. Time to catch up with my good friend Grant Flynn aka Recruit 2 In September 2202 myself & 19 others took part in SAS Who Dares Wins where an elite team of ex-special forces from the UK and USA recreate the special forces selection process - putting all us recruits through the ultimate test...

Originally a school teacher and rugby coach, Bede is now a director of a company Gazing Performance Systems which specialises in improving performance under pressure in the areas of sport, emergency services, business and education. They have trained people in over 60 countries and clients include major multi national blue chip companies, government departments and leading sporting organisations....

Dave Etheridge is a former Chief Fire Officer of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service plus the Immediate Past President of the Chief Fire Officers Association of the United Kingdom.    Dave currently works with government departments, as well as UK and overseas public and private sector clients with business development, public safety and emergency management-orientated consultancy also supporting...

Shan Raffel is an Australian retired operational station officer from Brisbane Australia.  After the death of two colleagues in 1994 and the serious injury of two others in 1996, he submitted a proposal for an intensive international study of compartment fire behaviour training (CFBT).  Raffel visited the United Kingdom and Sweden for 6 weeks to study the most advanced teaching tactics and trainin...

Efrem lost his son James who was killed on his second tour of Afghanistan. In the immediate aftermath and to this day he still experiences the very worst imaginable emotions.  Since James died Efrem has been diagnosed, treated for and am currently in remission for Prostate Cancer & during 2016 he was Recruit #11 in Channel 4’s SAS Who Dares Wins, filmed on location in the jungles of Ecuador. ...

Steven Sadler is the UK's leading On-call expert. Steve has served in four Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) throughout England: Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, Staffordshire and Shropshire. He has used his research expertise working as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Keele University, alongside this fire service experience to develop research and data solutions and innovations intended to help...