Dublin is a long way from the iconic Route 66 in the US, and I guess that none of our invited guests would truly qualify as members of Jack Kerouac’s ‘Beat generation’, but nevertheless there was a sense of adventure, as we packed up the Ruth Lee demo van last month and headed towards Holyhead for the ferry across to the Republic.
This was to be the first of a serious of roadshows, which we have scheduled across various parts of Ireland and the UK, to demonstrate to customers our new manikins and our unique range of fire simulation products.
For the occasion we invited Sef Hendrickx, principal of Fireware, our partner in Holland. His background is in producing special effects for the world of theatre and he has used that knowledge to design a range of products used to help training managers in the FRS create realistic training environments.
First up Sef presented some of the theory behind the benefits of staging realistic training, and how to achieve it, using Fireware products. Then it was out on to the tarmac at Dublin airport to demonstrate the whole range of products. Nicely fuelled up with sandwiches and cakes, our guests watched with interest, and then rolled up their sleeves for some hands-on training.
Of course fire and flames (real and artificial!) were the order of the day, but Ruth Lee Sales Manager, Stuart Cheetham, also had lots to show in terms of new manikins (working at height, full bodied airway management and our new ligature manikin creating the most interest).
Staff from FRS across Ireland came along, and were not disappointed. The guys gave us some great feedback too which we will use to make the next roadshows (October 11th at SERCO on Teeside and on the 13th at ESTC on the Wirral) even more useful to participants.
We were then treated to a firing up of the rig used on a daily basis by the Dublin Airport FRS. Speaking as a pen pusher this was not for the faint hearted!
In the words of Jack Kerouac:
“The ones who never yawn, never say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles, exploding like spiders across the stars”