“The enthusiasm of the Year 1 children, the enquiring nature of the Year 5s and the challenge, sometimes, of connecting with the Year 7s is what I love.
To deliver a Year 5 session when the children remember their Year 1 session and call out how to stop, drop and roll, or appreciate the importance of having working smoke alarms, is fantastic.”
Sara Beirne works for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Prevention Team as a Community Fire Safety Officer, leading on the service’s educational programme. Her role involves going into schools across the county and delivering fire safety advice to youngsters, teaching them how to prevent fire and to stay safe.
Having previously worked in many community-facing roles, Sara explains how she took up her current position with WFRS.
“I joined WFRS in January 2021 during the COVID pandemic after seeing an advertisement for the role of Community Safety Officer. My career had involved time spent as a nurse, a drugs worker, an advocate and with a specialist team within HM Prison and Probation Service.
“So, the opportunity to join a respected organisation delivering essential safety messages throughout the community, appealed to me. I was particularly keen to work with children and young people in raising awareness of risk and eager to become involved in their education.”
Sara goes into more detail about what her role covers:
“My role within the Prevention Team is that of a Community Safety Officer and I take the lead for our well-established education programme. We currently offer fire safety visits to children in Years 1 and 5, delivered by both crews and members of the Prevention Team, along with our Year 7 input which concentrates on arson awareness and impact.
“I regularly visit schools to deliver our presentations, which include practical elements such as stop, drop, and roll, crawling low in smoke and hazard spotting. The Y7 session encourages group work to share with the class relating to the impact of arson in our communities and has produced some fantastic results, including mini dramatic productions, posters, and raps!
“I visit crews on station and provide refresher training for the school programme, along with advice on our recording systems and offer any support needed with community engagement and prevention work in their area. I also attend schools when crews are delivering the presentations to encourage a peer review programme, giving encouragement and advice where possible.”
Sara’s work extends to outside the classroom too….
“I have recently offered fire safety sessions for the home-educated community to ensure every child has access to vital information and education. These sessions have been running in local libraries and have proven to be a huge success, with more planned throughout the county.
“I also look after the bookings, allocation, and delivery of WFRS fire education nursery boxes. These boxes are packed full of resources for nursery staff and childminders to use, to introduce the topic of fire safety from a young age, so that the children can learn messages through interactive play.
“Alongside overseeing the schools programme, as a CSO, I also carry out ‘safe and well’ visits with vulnerable customers in their own homes, attend community groups to deliver fire safety talks and attend local events and open days.
“I am currently involved in developing our input with the delivery of the Prince’s Trust Team programme, for young adults who are not in training, education, or employment so that we, as a service, continue to encourage and support every generation with learning lifelong skills and building confidence.”
The variety of Sara’s work keeps her motivated and her diary full…
“It’s often said and with me it’s absolutely the case. There is no such thing as a typical day in my role! One day, I may have two school sessions booked in for the morning, followed by Safe and Well visits in the afternoon, which then may need additional referrals making to partner agencies. Or it could be time spent at a summer activity programme, teaching fire, water, and road safety through games.
“Development of role is encouraged, so I may be on a training course or study day to develop skills and expand my own knowledge. Then there are our fortnightly team meetings, some which concentrate on our team plan and work streams, others which allow us time to do team building exercises. It really is a very varied and busy role!”
When asked about the biggest challenges she faces in her role, Sara says:
“One of the main challenges is in keeping the fire safety message current and relevant to the communities I engage with. The messages that we need to deliver do not necessarily change much, but we need to constantly reassess and adapt to how we reach our communities in the most effective way.
“Warwickshire Fire and Rescue is much smaller than some other Fire and Rescue Services and we do not necessarily have the large teams or funding available to us for large scale resources, so we must think creatively about how we can identify and respond to risk to engage with those who need our support.”
Sara explains how teaching children useful advice is the most rewarding element of her work …
“The enthusiasm of the Year 1 children, the enquiring nature of the Year 5s and the challenge sometimes of connecting with the Year 7s is what I love. To deliver a Year 5 session when the children remember their Year 1 session and call out how to stop, drop and roll or appreciate the importance of having working smoke alarms, is fantastic.
“Similarly, if a Year 7 class with some disinterested young people reach the end of the session, having become fully involved in the learning and producing some inspiring feedback to share with the rest of the class, it is an awesome result. Children and young people are generally keen to learn and absorb information like sponges – they can ask some unusual questions, it can require significant amounts of patience and lots of enthusiasm, but to know that you have helped to impart lifesaving advice in a way they will forever remember, is a job worth doing and doing well.”
Sarah finishes by adding how vital the work the Prevention Team is for protecting the community they serve:
“Prevention is better than cure, so if we can raise awareness, teach, support, and communicate our messages well and effectively, we can play a huge part in protecting the people of Warwickshire and beyond.
“We play a massively important role within our communities as an approachable and respected uniformed service. The Prevention Team works so hard to ensure we are able to reach everyone through our specialist, targeted and universal offers and feel proud to be part of the wider service, working together to prevent fires and keep people safe.”
To find out more about the work of Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Prevention Team and information on fire safety in the home, visit https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fire-safety-home.
For more information on Warwickshire Fire and Rescue’s Fire Safety Education Programme, head to https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fire-safety-home/fire-safety-education-programme.