Oh. My. God.

Today, oh boy. What a day. It was ok for me really. Sat in a lovely air conditioned Control Room. Apart from the fact....... that every single person that rang 999 - and let me tell you there was over 600 in the day shift - wanted to tell us their life story. When you have a queue of over 10 fire calls waiting to be answered and people don't listen to the questions you are asking, it becomes very frustrating. I am sure I have spoken to people today and they have put the phone down thinking I was extremely rude. And the really disappointing thing is, that I probably was. I don't mean to be, but I need to get the information as quickly as possible. I don't really have time to listen to how many times the local kids have set the fire, how the parents are to blame, how sick and tired the people are around there that they have to keep calling us out. I also need to confirm lots of things with the callers and they just didn't seem to be listening.

Its been a day of grass fires. Its been a day of telling people - I'm sorry, we have no-one to send at the moment, but as soon as we do they will be sent to you. Now I know that this is a normal day for both the Police and the Ambulance, but for us its a little more unusual. Fires spread quickly and its always risky to 'queue' grass fires. Its not a comfortable feeling.

This, I feel, is going to be the norm for the rest of the summer now. Joy.