SWINDON College has received a special certificate from the fire service for allowing a member of staff to work as a retained firefighter outside of his office hours.

Chris Howell, staff development officer, is employed to cover 100 hours a week as an on-call firefighter at the main Swindon station, on top of his full-time post at the college.

The college was required by law to allow Chris to sign up to join Wiltshire Fire and Rescue in case of disruption.

Chris said: “Working as part of the fire service is something I have always wanted to do.

“I have been working there for about four years now.

“During the week I could be called out at any time between the hours of 5.30pm and 7.30am the next morning and therefore always need to be ready to respond as and when required.”

As a retained firefighter, he has just four minutes to get to the station from his house at any point between his contracted hours.