WHO AM I
EX-Greenock Fireman's Online History Of Scottish Fire Brigades
A FORMER Greenock fireman has played a crucial role in the writing of the Strathclyde brigade’s history – thanks to him being forced to leave it.
Graeme Kirkwood was a part-time
fireman for 13 years but, when he went for a medical on his 40th birthday,
he failed because he wore glasses. He had worn glasses throughout his service
but the rules had changed.
“I was devastated,” said Graeme. “I loved the job. I was lost on a Thursday
night which was when the crew trained.
“I decided to start taking pictures of fire stations and different types of
appliances. I then started taking a note of when the stations were built and
then I decided to find out where previous stations were and when they opened
with a view to drawing a family tree of brigades.”
Graeme, a technical officer with BT, put together information on every fire
station, with addresses, officers in charge, and appliances. His family got used
to day trips and holidays in areas where he hadn’t checked the fire stations.
Then the internet came along and Graeme set up a website. He said: “I had all
this stuff but nobody was getting to see it.”
His on-line history of Scottish brigades proved to be vital to Strathclyde Fire
and Rescue’s public affairs manager Alan Forbes who had been tasked with writing
a book about the 30 years of Strathclyde Fire Brigade.
At the recent launch of the book – and in the book itself -- he paid tribute to
Graeme and his research saying there would have been big gaps without the
information.
“Every time he was looking for something on the internet, my website came up,”
said Graeme, whose efforts continue. There are more than 300 stations in
Scotland and Graeme has been to all the mainland ones. He also spends hours in
libraries looking at old council documents and annual reports.
One job Graeme is still working on is pinning down how many fire brigades there
were in Scotland before the Second World War. He explained: “It’s either 228 or
288 -- it depends on which book you read. One of them contains a typing mistake
but I still don’t know which is right.”
Graeme isn’t the only Inverclyde link with the Strathclyde book. A firefighter
who was based in Greenock, station officer Mick Kane, came up with the title –
Everyday Heroes.
And two Inverclyde Now photographs appear in the book – one of the
spectacular blaze at the old Broadfield Hospital, Port Glasgow last year, and
the other of a cat being rescued from a window ledge in Gourock.
(Inverclyde
Now 20 November 2005)
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