VOLUNTEER firefighters have spoken of their pride after a new scheme to thank their employers was launched.

The National Employer Recognition Scheme was launched to acknowledge businesses that allow their staff to be “on call” firefighters.

Yesterday, the first four officers and their employers were awarded certificates by Fire Minister Shahid Malik MP at Skelmanthorpe Fire Station.

The part-time firefighters, who work as a postman, a builder, a mechanic and a window cleaner, drop everything to answer 999 calls.

Self-employed builder Jason Crossland signed up to the fire service 12 years ago after witnessing an horrific crash at Shelley.

He said: “I was first on the scene when a lad died in a wagon.

“After that I realised maybe it would be good if I could help other people, because at that point I felt useless.

“That really drove me into coming and finding out about the fire service.

“I feel quite proud to get this award.

“It’s nice to be recognised and it’s nice to know that all the inconvenience that we all go through, our families as well, is recognised.”

Jason, 38, said there were fewer really serious fires than there used to be but they still did lots of vital work.

He added: “We might get a week where there’s nothing, we might get a week where there’s 10 or 15 calls – you can’t predict when it’s going to happen or what’s going to happen.

“It can be a bit of a pain at times but at the end of the day if I didn’t do it, then it wouldn’t be done.

“I live in the community and so do all my family so you’d feel guilty if something went off and you couldn’t turn in.

“I’ve seen a lot of good things but obviously we see a lot of disappointment and heartache.

“When it’s done for us we come home and we haven’t got to deal with a lot of the grief but it’s still there, still ingrained in your head.

“But it’s something you can take pride in that if you don’t go you don’t help.”

Mechanic Adrian Valentine, 33, said being on call took a lot of commitment.

He said: “What people don’t realise is when you’re on call you can’t take your family anywhere or your children to the park in case the alarm goes off and you have to leave them.

“But we do enjoy helping the community, a lot of work we do is for the community. We put lights up on the Christmas tree, we have the Cubs here to show them around the fire station, and we do a community bonfire.”

The other two awards went to the Royal Mail for allowing local postman, Stephen Thorpe, to work on-call and to self-employed window cleaner Marcus Radley.