Feature: Firefighters in Haywards Heath: '˜We are like a family here'

But for the emergency services there is no time to stop and anything can happen at any moment.

I paid firefighters in Haywards Heath a visit to find out what it is like working over the holidays and what they can be faced with during the busy time of year.

Watch manager Matt Myerscough, 45, who lives in Climping, had Christmas Day off this year – the first time in six years.

He spent it with his wife Carol, and their two children. He said working over the holidays can be ‘quite surreal’.

“It was really nice to have Christmas Day off this year, I spent it at home with the family and was back in work on Boxing Day,” he said.

“It can be quite bizarre – you can get a call because a fire alarm has gone off or there is a kitchen fire, and people are having their Christmas dinner when you get there, so it can be quite surreal.

“On Christmas Day we have the normal Christmas dinner like everyone else does and we try and make it as christmassy as possible in the station. The bells can go off at any point of course.

“For us, it is the team at the station that keeps us all going – we make it fun. Our families come up and see us too which is nice, so there can be lots of kids running around.

“The fire service, police and ambulance service never stop of course, they are essential services, so Christmas Day is just another day for us.

“But if tragic things do happen over the holidays it can be a lot more emotional for us to deal with, of course. With any incident, it can happen at any time of year, but at Christmas, it is meant to be a festive time and a happy time.

“If it is a big fire or flood where people lose absolutely everything, it can be hard and emotional to deal with.”

Matt has been a firefighter for eight years. He said the hardest part of working over the holidays is not being with his children when they wake up Christmas morning.

“Before I had children, it was different obviously, I spent it with the guys here, who are my extra family,” he said.

“When you have children you look forward to seeing their faces when they wake up on Christmas morning, so when you are working you miss this – that can be hard. But we Facetime and message each other.

“We receive gifts from people in the community too, which is really nice. And it is nice to know that they support us.

“If we work a busy day over Christmas it can feel rewarding and it is nice to have something to look forward to at the end of the shift, like seeing our family.”

The crew start at 7am over the holidays and finish at 7pm, but sometimes they can finish a lot later if they get called out.

“We can answer a call at one minute to seven and then we could be out for hours, so 18 hour days are possible,” said crew manager Phil Pierpoint.

“The people we work with keep us going though. Sometimes it can be a battle with family arrangements over Christmas as we never know if we are going to make it.

“But we can prepare which is good, you know if you are working Christmas day at the beginning of the year, so we can make other arrangements with family.”

Phil lives in Lindfield with his wife Debbie and their son Jack, who is 12. He has been a firefighter for 12 years and has lived in the area all his life.

He said not being with their children in the morning is the hardest part.

“I do miss the family when I am working, especially when children are in the early years, you miss the opening of presents in the morning,” he said.

“That morning is a really lovely time, so it is hard not being with them, but we work around it with our families and we change the routine.

“If you are off Christmas you are still on call, so you could be eating your Christmas dinner and your pager starts to go off.”

The team said they are often called to fire alarms going off due to people cooking, chimney fires and car accidents, because of the number of cars on the road during the holidays.

“We just have to wait for the calls to come in,” added Phil.

“It tends to be less commercial fires because most offices are closed during the festive period.”

While I was at the fire station in Mill Green Road I was able to speak to the team who work behind the scenes.

These are the people that take our emergency 999 calls and are the very first people who help keep us safe.

Crew manager Ross Archer, 38, has been working at the station for the past six years.

He lives in Seaford and has three boys, aged six, 11 and 16.

He said: “There are seven of us on duty and we work ten-hour days and 14-hour night shifts. We take calls from West Sussex and East Sussex in the office and send appropriate resources to the incidents, until there is a conclusion.

“We can have nothing going on but within ten minutes we can have five or six things happening. We are like a family here and we spend a lot of time together.

“We have Christmas lunch and we do quizzes and wear Christmas jumpers to get into the spirit and to create a festive feel in the office.”

Ross said the team have learned how to deal with difficult calls, and during Christmas these can be harder to deal with.

“Difficult calls affect people differently,” he said.

“Sometimes you can relate to someone on the phone when you are speaking to them and you build a picture up of the person and scenario very quickly.

“If we get a distressing call we make opportunities to take breaks. Everyone is really supportive of everyone else in the office, so people have time out if they need it, for example calls involving children may affect people with children.

“We lead them on the phone and take control to get the information we need. We try to keep them calm and reassure them. We have to be quite assertive, it is easy to be dragged into the personal side, but we have to block that out and we aim to get the information as quick as possible.”

Matt Purves, 29, who lives in Midhurst, has been working at the station for three and a half years.

He said the hardest part about working over the holidays is missing out on social activities with family and friends.

“As it is shift work, we have to plan around it,” he said.

“People we work with keep us going and the banter, and it is nice when we come in over Christmas as everyone always has a story tell, perhaps what presents they got or anything funny that happened.”