Page 29 - THE FIRE STATION

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computer room, library, rest room). This is followed by the 14:00 -
17:00 sports time slot, when staff gather in the gym, or outside if
weather conditions permit. The slot may also be used to complete
any unfinished maintenance work.
From 17:00 to 22:00, the firemen attend to various tasks. They eat
their evening meal in the canteen at 18:30, at the end of which
they will stow equipment, do the washing-up, clean the kitchen,
etc., while the officers finish their paperwork.
Around 22:00, the firemen retire to their sleeping quarters, which
they leave at 06:45 to perform the various end-of-shift tasks such
as emptying waste-bins, getting the sleeping quarters ready for
the next shift, etc.
At 07:30, the firemen stow away their personal protection equip-
ment, take off their uniforms, have a shower and get ready to
leave the fire station.
This description obviously takes no account of possible call-outs,
which can occur at any time. The paramedics and firemen, ser-
geants, drivers and duty officers must be in a position to get to
their vehicles as quickly as possible from wherever they are on
the premises, whether the gym, the outside training area, the
mechanical workshop, the living and sleeping quarters.
“Firemen are very knowledgeable. They have retained all the no-
blesse of physical work, augmented by a hefty dose of training.
Firemen are there to respond to major disasters. They have a touch
of the UFO robot Grendizer, the defender of the Earth. They are
today’s heroes. They go out together to fight fires, like brothers.
Our work is for heroes. They have chosen this calling in life. In
response to their courage, their altruism, I wanted to give them
an endearing building. I wanted to give them a place for contem-
plation, a square for heroes! This is to be a place dedicated to an
elevation of thought, uniting all firemen via a large chain, marking
this enduring link between all firemen, including those who have
died or been injured, the whole Charleroi fire brigade, all firemen
in Belgium and abroad. Each major disaster has its own particular
fresco. We need a fresco on this heroes’ square. I also plan to offer going past the entry barrier raised automatically either by the
a hymn to the firemen, a composition dedicated to them.”
Philippe Samyn
WHAT DOES AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE INVOLVE?
Emergency calls (100 or 112) are received by the Mons 100 call
centre. This in turn, dependent on the fire service responsible for
the territory and the facilities available, alerts the Charleroi fire
brigade’s control centre (Centre de traitement des alertes or CTA),
in certain cases via an XML message sent straight from the Mons
call centre’s IT system to the dispatching hard and software).
This integrated system automatically alerts the fire station in the
form of predefined audible and visual alerts (a series of musical
notes, a pre-alert message, red lights, posts on LCD screens, etc.)
The duty officers check the nature of the call and the availability
of response teams in the Charleroi and Jumet fire stations. The
control centre staff, possibly assisted by the duty officer, decide
which equipment is needed to respond to the call.
The dispatching system will have already transmitted the in-
formation to the printer in the response vehicle hall and to the
vehicles’ navigation systems.
The general alert is given via a message containing the station
(Jumet or Charleroi), the team concerned, the location of the
incident and potential aggravating factors.
On the pre-alert, the destination and ID of the incident are
displayed on screens installed throughout the station.
The firemen assigned to the response team immediately stop
what are they doing, wherever they are on the premises, and
head for their vehicle, running or sliding down poles. For obvious
reasons, these distances must be as short and direct as possible.
The response team grab their personal protection equipment and
jump into the vehicle. Control centre staff activate the mechanism
for automatically opening the garage doors in case the dispatch-
ing system has not already done such.
The response team leaves the fire station via a one-way road,
station’s management system, or possibly by the control centre.