OFFICIAL TYNE AND WEAR FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE THE QUARTERLY NEWS LETTER FOR RETIRED MEMBERS SEPTEMBER 2015 (ISSUE 50) – FUNDED BY THE SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB 50TH EDITION!! The Old Hands Newsletter is celebrating its 50th edition this month which means it has been a regular publication for the past 13 years. The first edition was published in May 2002 and was the “brainchild” of Ian Robertson who at the time was a Divisional Officer in Health and Safety. Ian passed it on to his successor, Stuart Thompson, who took it to a new level and also did a fantastic job in creating better links with our retired members and keeping them more informed on events. Hopefully, with your help, I can maintain the standards set by the 2 previous editors and the “Old Hand” continues to be a useful and worthwhile means of contact with the retired members. SCOTTISH FIREFIGHTER WINS PENSIONS PAYOUT A retired Firefighter has won a £550 million pay-out for thousands of emergency service workers after a five year campaign for justice. Up to 34,000 former Firefighters and Police Officers are in line for windfalls worth tens of thousands of pounds each after Billy Milne proved that a Government blunder short-changed them when they left their jobs. He, like many other 999 workers, gave up part of his annual pension payments in return for a lump sum on retirement – but was left out of pocket because officials were years late in updating rules about how the value of his pension was calculated. It emerged that rules on how much of an individual’s pension pot can be ‘commuted’ into a lump sum had been updated in 2006 to take account of longer life expectancy, making funds more valuable overall. He submitted his case to the Pensions Ombudsman in 2010, but it was delayed by legal challenges and it was not until May this year that the regulator upheld his complaint. Every Firefighter who retired with a lump sum between 1st December 2001 and 21st August 2006, the years when the rules should have been updated, is now due a top-up. We will keep you updated on further developments. CAR DRAW JULY 2015 PRIZE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th WINNING NUMBER 1582 1599 76 2009 2411 2141 1394 570 3854 4548 669 441 1617 3451 1698 1232 1453 537 3942 46 NAME T O’Kane S Dix D Dixon C Loader F Elton J Dabrowski R Craig J Brooks P Hobson C Tucker J Martin A Bosher M Battle J Bullen D Linton P Brookbanks B Hammond M Kirkbride M Snaith D Rowland LOCATION AMOUNT J Retired Retired Retired Retired Retired Retired Retired Retired C Retired Retired Retired N Retired Retired Retired K SHQ Retired £8,000 £2,000 £1,000 £1,000 £500 £500 £400 £300 £300 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 £200 Although the first prize wasn’t won by a retired member what a fantastic percentage of prizes won with 15 of the 20 prizes going to retired members. PRIZE DRAW AUGUST 2015 PRIZE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th WINNING NUMBER 310 20 853 121 657 450 1476 1972 607 293 1601 NAME D McTomney T Bilcliffe M Warren P Hopkins M Longstaff C Orr A Henzell S Graham T Vaughan J Stephenson R Craig LOCATION AMOUNT SHQ Retired C C M SDHQ Retired S V Retired Retired £7,000 £500 £200 £100 £100 £100 £100 £100 £100 £100 £100 OFFICIAL 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 1803 841 1001 1231 267 S Pinder M Harding J Cooper N Mortimer A Mapplebeck N A J J TSC £100 £100 £100 £100 £100 Thank you to the following people who made donations after their car draw wins: Arthur Boucher, John Thornby, Derek Steinberg, Jeff Anderson, Jim Kershaw, Steve Stokoe, John Martin, Derek Linton, Phil Hobson, Steve Dix and Fred Elton. If you want to join or increase your numbers contact us in Support Services on 0191 4441560. Name Alan Fowlie Dorothy Thompson OBITUARIES Date of Death 23/07/2015 10/08/2015 Age 71 77 Our deepest sympathy and sincere condolences are extended to the families of our departed friends and colleagues. CONTACT DETAILS To hear of retirement functions, funeral services, events etc. please register your email address – send to peter.stronach@twfire.gov.uk Please remember to inform us of any changes to your contact details. Name Ray Houghton Jim McCabe Brian Tinnion Ged Bell Martin Connolly Michael Walls Steve Lamb David Convery Gary Scorer Ray Houghton David Graham Carole McAdam Christopher Hall RECENT RETIREMENTS Location S J A A MNFTC F SHQ T W K SHQ M TSC Date 12/07/2015 16/07/2015 16/08/2015 16/08/2015 16/08/2015 01/06/2015 05/06/2015 14/06/2015 25/06/2015 12/07/2015 16/07/2015 16/08/2015 25/08/2015 FORTHCOMING RETIREMENTS Name Location Date Barry Marshall K 09/09/2015 Kevin Bracchi Y 22/09/2015 Barry Graham G 10/10/2015 Peter Hamilton E 13/10/2015 Tony Thompson OHU 31/12/2015 Dave Royal SHQ 02/01/2016 Martin McConnell E 18/02/2016 NORTH DIVISION FIRE SAFETY REUNION Andrew Kewbank has asked us to let you all know of another th night out for Fire Safety. It will take place on 9 September 2015 at 1930hrs in Lau’s 202 Buffet House, Newgate Street, Newcastle. Drinks at Rosie’s Bar at 1900hrs first if interested. All are welcome to attend. Please contact Andrew.kewbank@btinternet.com to confirm attendance for table numbers. IAN WALKER R/W M & N Ian and his wife Liz run a bed and breakfast in Campolongo Sul Brenta, Veneto, Italy catering for people who enjoy cycling, trekking or sightseeing. They are offering a 10% discount to any firefighters interested in this type of holiday. Ian will also pick you up from either Venice Marco Polo airport or Venice Treviso airport. For further information checkout their website www.benemax.biz/ or email benemaxmsi@hotmail.co.uk . SPORTS AND SOCIAL TRIPS 27 – 29 November 2015 London 13 – 16 May 2016 Liverpool £199 per person staying at the Radisson Blu Hotel 10 – 15 November 2016 New York £815 per person flying from Manchester and staying at The Wolcott Hotel. For information and booking forms contact Lindsey Davidson on 0191 444 1558, lindsey.davidson@twfire.gov.uk or Peter Stronach on 0191 444 1560, peter.stronach@twfire.gov.uk . MEMORIES Peter Edmondson I’m going back to the early 1970’s on my first watch, the Red Watch at Hebburn, and a great bunch of old Firemen, which included a not so old Fireman called Peter Edmondson, who is sadly no longer with us. We turned up one night at a house fire in Jarrow, all the action was at the front of the house, Peter grabbed me and said lets go round the back, and to our surprise was an old rickety wooden ladder, it must have been 100 years old, that had been pitched by neighbours in a gallant attempt to make a rescue. Within seconds Peter said to me “foot that ladder and don’t move”, me being a good little probationer I did as I was told. Peter disappeared up the ladder into thick black smoke (without BA). What seemed like an eternity, but must have been less than 2 minutes, he re-appeared coming back down holding two very young kids and handed them to me. How he managed to hold onto the ladder holding the kids is beyond me. I remember thinking at the time WOW what a brilliant job being a fireman is. Now this made me laugh – workshop/garage on fire in Bill Quay. Heavily smoked logged, 2 BA wearers, myself and Peter, we could hear a big dog barking up ahead. All of a sudden my BA partner disappeared. As you might guess he fell into the pit where the angry Alsatian was. I didn’t know a fireman could jump so high and move so fast, but he was out of that pit in an instance with the dog biting his backside. The funny thing was I think this happened twice during Peter’s career. Thanks to Jim Lincoln for the above stories. And here’s one more: OFFICIAL As a newly promoted brigade petroleum officer I got a call from a station about some dangerous storage conditions. I went through all of the routine of taking samples to be tested while the local ADO hung around making occasional ‘helpful’ comments. When all the samples were taken and all the evidence was collected, I went through the difficult process of cautioning the occupier. When I got to the bit where I asked him if he had anything to say that I would write down etc…… He said “If this stuffs so dangerous why is the fire chief smoking a tab?” Sure enough the ADO was having a smoke while he casually examined the petrol samples. “This stuffs not dangerous son” said the ADO “if I threw this tab in a bucket of petrol it would just go out”. “Write that down as well” said the occupier. Back at HQ I reported to Tom Bennett who said “I don’t think we can really go with this”. Tom was rarely wrong. Thanks to Graham Butler for his story. If you have anything you would like to share in the “Old Hand” please send it to either Peter or Lindsey.