Free teas / coffees for on a shout firefighters?

[Volvo1956]

Many Firemen are frustrated police applicants who didn't make it.
Generally a poor relationship between police and FB.
No problem between police and ambulance.
Always used to say in my day a £2000 fire damage turns out to be £10000 of damage once FB turn up using axes etc. 😂🤣

[kurt535]

Am surprised the crews don't carry water/food for these longer occasions. I think its unfair on the person in Mcd to get the rap for this.

[gothatway]

Volvo1956 said:

Many Firemen are frustrated police applicants who didn't make it.
Generally a poor relationship between police and FB.
No problem between police and ambulance.
Always used to say in my day a £2000 fire damage turns out to be £10000 of damage once FB turn up using axes etc. ????

Is that at all relevant, or are you just venting?

[TooMany2cvs]

Volvo1956 said:

Always used to say in my day a £2000 fire damage turns out to be £10000 of damage once FB turn up using axes etc. ????

Perhaps if they waited for somebody to rock up with the key, it'd be £20k of fire damage?

[Greendubber]

Volvo1956 said:

Many Firemen are frustrated police applicants who didn't make it.
Generally a poor relationship between police and FB.
No problem between police and ambulance.
Always used to say in my day a £2000 fire damage turns out to be £10000 of damage once FB turn up using axes etc. ????

Can't say I've ever had issues with the brigade. We work closely and train with them often and they're all bang on.

[Volvo1956]

Go that way.
Just responding to poo at Paul's and his FB experiences.
So yes it's relevant to his post if you'd bothered to read it.

[Johnnytheboy]

This is all getting a bit "share and like if you think firemen are heroes"...

Mojooo said:

As with all similar cases I suspect the staff on the tills have no discretion or decision making authority.

I think this is quite likely. From my limited experience it's surprising how high up the food chain (excuse the pun) you have to go up in some chain places to authorise free drinks.

Though I suspect the idea that it was some random demanding free drinks for the firemen that was refused, rather than the firemen themselves has some chance of being true.

[Volvo1956]

Perhaps we had a particularly odd/frustrated bunch.

[gothatway]

Volvo1956 said:

Go that way.
Just responding to poo at Paul's and his FB experiences.
So yes it's relevant to his post if you'd bothered to read it.

I read it. You might learn how to quote to give some context to your ramblings.

[markcoznottz]

If you want to see why these stories gain momentum, put McDonalds fire brigade into Facebook. Be warned you cannot unsee what you will find. It would seem that a section of society have a very limited grasp of how the real world works.

[Dibble]

La Liga said:

If it were the police I’d expect them to fail to arrange any welfare provisions for an atypical event. The fire services tend to be a bit better in this area.

As others have said, free stuff is nice but shouldn’t be an expectation.

The police often get discount / free things as there’s a business benefit to having police officers around e.g. a retail store and preventing theft.

Very much my experience too. The water fairies tend to be a lot more swittched on with the “welfare bus”. I’ve been to a few big fires/incidents with a lot of fire crews there and their chuck wagon seems to arrive very early on, as soon as it’s apparent it’s found to be anything remotely drawn out. There’s little point having staff who aren’t fed/watered, because they’ll be less productive/efficient.

I always used to have a few bits and pieces in my public order bag for deployments, but it would usually only be a couple of bottles of water and some “long life” type snacks - cereal bars mainly. Not exactly gourmet cuisine, but fuel nonetheless. That was ok, as long as you weren’t too far from your vehcile/kitbag. We were issued Sigg water bottles as part of our belt kit, but it was easy to get through a litre of water pretty quickly.

I’d never expect to get a freebie or ask for one and to be honest, I’d rather pay to avoid all the usual nonsense about getting “freebies” from the Facebook warriors/serial moaners. You might end up with large chips instead of regular, or a free can of pop, but I’d never ask for, or expect, it. Similarly, if I go to a takeaway/order from Just Eat when I’m not at work, I’ll sometimes get free poppadoms/prawn crackers etc thrown in. They cost pennies, but as long as the main food is fine, I’d be more likely to give businesses like that repeat custom.

And I’m surprised they walked a mile each way to get to a McDonald’s (unless it was the middle of the night and was a 24 hour one and the only place open).

[Motorrad]

hutchst said:

What's the point of fast tracking all these women into the top jobs in the fire service if they can't even make a decent cup of tea?

You'll burn for saying things like that, it isn't allowed these days, you'll be flagged by the PH thought police as a dangerous and regressive toxic male

[anonymous-user]

A welfare unit was on site

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16983341.bm-fire-...

‘A spokesperson for the fire service said: "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has a welfare unit which provides refreshments to our firefighters at large incidents and this (welfare unit) did attend the incident at Clifton Moor, York on Saturday evening.‘

[gothatway]

JPJPJP said:

A welfare unit was on site

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16983341.bm-fire-...

‘A spokesperson for the fire service said: "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has a welfare unit which provides refreshments to our firefighters at large incidents and this (welfare unit) did attend the incident at Clifton Moor, York on Saturday evening.‘

That all adds to the suspicion that the story was caused by some random person demanding free coffee from McD's "on behalf of those brave fire-fighters".

[yellowjack]

Volvo1956 said:

Many Firemen are frustrated police applicants who didn't make it.
Generally a poor relationship between police and FB.
No problem between police and ambulance.
Always used to say in my day a £2000 fire damage turns out to be £10000 of damage once FB turn up using axes etc. ????

I'll have to point this out to my brother now!

He went in the opposite direction. Started as a retained fire fighter on top of a 9 to 5 job, decided he'd like to work full time for them, but couldn't get a paid job with his brigade/service, so applied to be a policeman. I haven't spoken to him in a while, but I think he's still in his probationary period.

As 'Dibble' mentioned on the thread, it's a bit of a two-edged sword, getting/asking for freebies. How many times do we see threads bashing coppers for parking right outside a store to go and buy their food on a break? Or a social media buffoon running them down for getting preferential rates on their break-time scoff? Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Me? I'll ask in lots of shops for a discount, because there's a (closed) website that manages discounts and special offers for serving and ex forces. So there's no embarrassment in flashing the membership card and asking if the shop/restaurant is part of the scheme. That usually nets you a % discount on a bill, or a free drink with a meal, etc. But randomly asking for freebies? I'd not be up for that.

I once did get a free meal at a chippy though. On the last leg of a 100+ mile bike ride through Essex/Cambs/Suffolk I stopped into the only chip shop I knew of between me and my barracks. Got chatting with the ladies behind the counter, who seemed suitably impressed by the distance I'd cycled, and they asked where I was headed for. That led to what I did for a living (EOD Regiment) and that led to them refusing to take payment for a large cod & chips. Which felt rather awkward if I'm honest. I'd always paid for my chips before that, and always did afterwards. Just a random chat on a cold, wet, dark winter's night that led to that one freebie.

It's weird really. I know there are businesses that will do a discount for NHS staff too, on production of ID. My wife is a nurse, and she's done far more important stuff than I ever did, regularly involved as part of a team that really does save lives. But she doesn't get anywhere near as many offers of discounts as us squaddies and the blue-lighters. It's slightly odd, how a shiny red lorry or a big yellow van confers "hero status" onto a person, whereas no-one seems desperate to publicly "big-up" hospital porters or housekeeping staff, yet without them paramedics, doctors, and nurses wouldn't be in a position to be of much use to patients. It should be all about team work, yet singling out only the shiny 'front of house' team members for praise and discounts/freebies doesn't seem to do much to nurture team spirit...


...and a lot of store discounts aren't entirely altruistic either. Don't forget that students are often offered a discount with a valid NUS card. That's just businesses trying to get students through the doors to form shopping habits with them, tempt them in with 20% off for three years now, and hope they'll carry on shopping with you long after they've moved on to have jobs and families.

[limpsfield]

I didn't know you were in the army yellowjack, thank you for your service. Any more stories?

[DoubleD]

I found a picture of what yellow did while in the army

[Rick101]

limpsfield said:

, thank you for your service.

Megalolz. Is that how the kids say it?

Im sure he's a nice guy and does his job to the best of his ability but this whole discussion has revolved around the fact that some people value some jobs, for whatever reason, more than others.

Completely irrational, illogical and quite frankly ridiculous. Don't like it? Start a petishon

[ukaskew]

JPJPJP said:

A welfare unit was on site

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16983341.bm-fire-...

‘A spokesperson for the fire service said: "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has a welfare unit which provides refreshments to our firefighters at large incidents and this (welfare unit) did attend the incident at Clifton Moor, York on Saturday evening.‘

As expected, a complete non-story or a severe twisting of events to fit a narrative.

Still, 118 posts on PH with various news links, times that by thousands of forums and social media posts doing the same and it's easy to see why news sites are happy to propagate this nonsense.

[yellowjack]

DoubleD said:

I found a picture of what yellow did while in the army

Hmmmm?

You're going to have to think bigger than that...