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John Aitchison has worked for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for 21 years but he’s also the driving force behind the creation of volunteer fire and rescue service in Nepal that serves the communities around Mount Everest. He tells Emergency Services Times what drives him and why he’s determined to improve fire safety thousands of miles from home.
In 2015 two devastating earthquakes resulted in the deaths of over 9,000 people in Nepal. John was part of an international search and rescue team that responded to the disaster, sent to remote communities with the hope of finding people alive. He recalls the experience.
“Nepal was frustrating; the logistics difficult, the airport blocked and by the time we got there, most of the people had been rescued. We did a lot of good stuff but the experience weighed heavy on me.”
It was a pivotal moment in his life. He resolved to do more and, finding a kindred spirit in John Monahan, a now retired firefighter from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, they set up an offshoot of the Fire Aid charity devoted to working in Nepal.
Aligning Fire Aid Nepal with the Gurkha Welfare Trust, a British charity supporting retired gurkhas and their families, John has returned to Nepal six times, delivering training equipment and humanitarian services. He’s built relationships with the country’s government, the military, police and fire and rescue services and trained firefighters in USAR techniques, developing the country’s capability and capacity to respond should the worse happen.
He’s done this in his own time and often with his own money. It’s an impressive commitment and the basis for understanding how he ended up setting up a new volunteer fire and rescue service in the Everest region.
Khumbu, a region of north east Nepal is in the shadow of Mount Everest. He says it is a huge area with lots of towns but no roads.
“They don’t need fire engines. Everything is flown in and carried on donkeys or on peoples backs.”
Some of that is the firefighting kit donated by his service in the UK and by others, shipped or flown over and given a second life.
It’s not only the terrain that is in stark contrast to the UK, but culture and education. He says getting fire safety messages across is hard as people burn a lot of things like sage in their homes with little ventilation, meaning that CO detectors are vital and smoke detectors ineffective. He’s using the techniques of fire prevention that were innovative in the UK back in the early 2000s as fire and rescue services realised that advocates like faith leaders were the only way to get to hard to reach groups.
But the real influence has been his relationship with the mayor of Khumbu and a decision to create a fire and rescue service for the region, operating like an on-call service back in the UK.
The model relies on volunteers and John has found no shortage of local people willing to volunteer and be trained to help their local community. He says with some humour that when he arrived at a meeting of volunteers interested in joining, all but two were women. “My boss would tear his right arm off for that,” he says, laughing at the memory but clearly proud at the successful recruitment.
He has done all the training for the volunteer firefighters. He’s even been involved in rescues while doing training. They are doing defensive firefighting from outside the building. There is no breathing apparatus (BA) here, although there are ambitions to introduce it in the future. They also deal with medical emergencies, helping move people using stretchers and doing low level interventions.
He says firefighter safety is top of his agenda. “I’m starting this fire service from scratch, so there are no bad habits.”
Everest Fire and Rescue Service now has over 100 volunteers. “They are always on call. If something happens, they use WhatsApp. The phone coverage is excellent, even better than at home in Scotland,” he explains, clearly impressed.
John has taken a train the trainer approach to his work with the Everest team. This is a 10 year project after which they must self sufficient. He’s spoken to the Mayor of Khumbu, who is also one of the board of trustees he’s set up for the service and told him “we’re only here for a few years and then you’re on your own.” Two years in, that seems a long way off and will coincide with John’s retirement from the service.
A key part of his plan is to bring in others, younger USAR specialists from the UK to go out to Nepal to assist him and keep up their own skills at the same time. He’s keen to raise awareness of this opportunity for firefighters from across all fire and rescue services in the UK.
“There’s more to the fire service than sitting on a watch. There’s a big world out there. I’m keen to get new recruits involved to see what’s possible, develop and then hone their skills.
“The skills you pick up overseas enhance what you do on your watch for your fire and rescue service. You’re able to think outside the box when there are no resources.”
He concludes our conversation back where we started: capacity building..He wants to build the resilience of Nepal to respond to incidents and with his tenacity and determination, they are already well on their way.
You can support John’s work by donating to Fire Aid Nepal.
