Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 30/06/2010 09:32

Roger Willey, Station Manager at Mullion Community Fire Station, will attend an emotional final drill night on Thursday 1 July as he retires from the Fire Service after 40 years of dedicated service.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer Des Tidbury, Cornwall Council cabinet member for community safety and neighbourhoods Lance Kennedy and local Cornwall Councillor for Mullion Carolyn Rule will be there on the night to present Roger with a special award to celebrate Roger’s remarkable career and to thank him for his outstanding service to Cornwall.

Des said: “I can’t emphasise enough how special Roger’s achievement of serving Cornwall for over forty years really is. We all owe him a massive debt of thanks for his dedication, hard work, and commitment”.

Roger joined Cornwall Fire Brigade as a Retained Firefighter on 8 January 1970. Since then he has worked his way up through the ranks and was promoted to Leading Firefighter in 1981 and then Sub Officer in 1992.

In 1991 he was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal followed by his Cornwall Council 25 year Long Service Medal in 1995.

With the introduction of the co-responder scheme, which sees specially trained firefighters offering a first response service for medial emergencies, Roger was one of the first to be trained in these life saving skills. He passed his Advanced First Aid Training course in 1999 and has worked tirelessly to promote the scheme in the Mullion community.

In May 2000, Roger’s level of cover was increased to full and he was promoted to Station Manager in November 2003.

Cornwall Councillor for Mullion Carolyn Rule said: “Roger has and continues to serve his local community in so many ways. For many years he has been involved in the surf life saving club and has trained hundreds of local youngsters in beach and sea safety. He is also a parish councillor and steward and judge for Mullion horticultural society. The contribution he makes to his local area is outstanding – long may he continue.”

Cornwall Council cabinet member for community safety Lance Kennedy said: “Roger’s community safety work and especially his work to promote Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service’s home fire safety checks which sees firefighters advising residents on how to keep safe in their own homes, has been exemplary and very well received, especially by elderly residents.”

Note to editors:

· Roger joined the brigade on 8 January 1970

· At the old Mullion fire station where there was only the one appliance, the premises was only big enough for one vehicle and the office area housed in the roof. When lectures were being held the crew had to sit on the roof of the appliance. Back then there was no breathing apparatus or radios and turnout was done by siren and house bells.

· In 1973 Mullion’s new fire station opened and Mullion gained an extra appliance

· The area which Mullion covers includes large areas of heath land which Roger has always been keen to protect

· One of the major challenges Roger faced was during the devastating drought of 1976 when he was first on the scene of a huge grassland fire at Goonhilly Downs. It took three days to finally bring it under control.

· In 1998 a co-responder emergency medical response scheme was undertaken by Mullion fire station. Roger was one of the first to be trained with these life saving skills and he has always worked hard to promote this scheme in the Mullion community and has ensured the training and equipment needed to perform these skills are a high priority. The benefits to the community from his efforts has been immense. When this scheme was under threat due to pressures on funding, Roger worked tirelessly to save it -lobbying local councillors, writing to MP’S and organising meetings.

· Roger has always been very proud of his high standards and has ensured these have been passed on through his training of firefighters, his upkeep of the station and the professionalism of his crew.

· He has been an elected member of Mullion Parish Council since May 2003 to date with responsibilities for footpaths & bridleways –their upkeep, maintenance & registration, involved with local affordable housing scheme, viewing of planning applications with a view to preservation of areas of unspoilt natural beauty within the village

· Secretary of Mullion football club for 10 years- helped to establish new licensed clubhouse, updated changing facilities and build successful football teams

· Secretary of Mounts Bay Inn darts team

· Mullion surf life saving club- joined at 11 years old eventually took over running of the club as well as being secretary – involved in training hundreds of local youngsters in beach & sea safety to gain nationally recognised awards and taking them forward to compete in national competitions, some of whom are now professional life guards all over the world. Organised rotas for beach patrols and carried out beach rescues. Only resigned as club president this year.

· Steward & judge for Mullion horticultural society & a keen gardener

· Member of the small boat owners association & keen fisherman on his boat Rocket 2

· Used to breed racing pigeons, producing some good winners

· He attended Helston secondary modern school

· Then attended Cornwall technical college to complete a 2 year engineering course

· In 1966 he joined the Post office engineering department at Goonhilly as an apprentice technician – known as a youth in training. this was a three year apprenticeship which involved block release training at the post office training school in Oxfordshire & ONC & HNC at Cornwall Technical College

· During his post office training he had to go out with gangs to work on the telephone lines, Whilst doing this work there was an incident when a pole being pulled out in the wrong way pole axed the rigger, the rest of the gang thought they would bundle the injured rigger into the van and take him home, from his first aid training with the surf life saving club Roger realised the man was seriously injured as his leg was badly swollen so he started to cut the man’s boot off. The Foreman reprimanded him severely for this as they were new boots and he would not be able to have a new pair for two years. However Roger was later mentioned in citations for saving the man’s life as he also put him in the recovery position after this the rigger spent four months in hospital

· Later on another incident involved Roger when an aerial being lowered to the ground landed on his foot crushing it resulting in Roger having 8 weeks off – thankfully health & safety has since been introduced

· Roger Spent all his Career working at Goonhilly Satellite station finally responsible for sending and receiving telephone & television signals across the world, movement of satellite dishes to receive signals , ship to shore emergency channel monitoring, fault diagnosis, communications with worldwide countries