What, you might ask, do a plumber, retail manager, two landscape gardeners, a painter and decorator, a lighting technician and a couple of builders have in common?

Well, for a start, none of them are frightened of heights which is just as well as they spend much of their spare time climbing up and down ladders. They are Ingatestone's boys in blue - the village's retained fire crew.

They are called out to about 500 calls a year dealing with situations right across the entire mural of modern life, from horses falling into swimming pools, to all-out emergencies involving potentially lethal chemical spills, blazing houses and industrial fires.

Essex is one of England's largest counties with well over a million people living within its borders, yet out of 51 fire stations only 18 are full time with the remaining 33 retained.

They are manned by dedicated men who I hesitate to label as part- timers because there is nothing part-time in their total commitment to the fire service and to their community.

Dave, Calvin, Trevor, Mark, Clive, Russell, Adrian and Derren have notched up more than 83 years service between them. All of them work locally and down tools to head for Ingatestone's High Street fire station even before their personal bleepers hit full steam.

"Firemen are totally dedicated and our lads are no different," said Ingatestone's station commander Dave Speller who has put in 31 years service. "Our role is the same as the regulars. We are expected to tackle anything which is asked of us. We do and that means we must keep fit, be fully trained and up to date with modern fire fighting techniques and equipment."

Today's firemen are light years away from the Trumpton brigade with its clanging hand bell, buckets of sand and garden ladders. Trumpton's only resemblance to today's hi-tech fire teams is its red engine (or, in today's jargon, appliance) and even that 12 ton, £100,000 monster bears very little resemblance to its forebears.

Ingatestone's team has four drivers who are kept up to mustard by constant assessments and before they so much as touch the steering wheel undergo a mind bending written examination.

"Like every other organisation the fire service has seen changes, mainly in equipment which has become very sophisticated,'' said Dave, a natural born leader who is blessed with a unique gift of blending discipline with humour and good natured banter. And there's plenty of that when Calvin and co get together.

"A sense of humour is essential in this line," said Calvin, a six foot painter and decorator built along the lines of the proverbial brick privy. "Firemen often witness some pretty ghastly situations and if we weren't able to pull each other's legs and have bit of a joke it could be pretty grim," he said.

Clive and Mark Williams are father and son, both are landscape gardeners and when work is over they climb into their firemen's' gear and report for duty.

Clive said: "I don't know if father and son teams are usual in this business. We have always worked as a team and it feels very natural to continue that pattern away from home. We put a lot of ourselves and spare time into the fire service as do all of the lads - they couldn't do it if they didn't. It's true that there can be some very sobering incidents but this job has its lighter side too."

Dealing with a largely rural community means that Ingatestone firemen have more than their fair share of animal rescue call-outs. Digging dogs out of rabbit warrens is a common one, and figuring out a way to get a horse to safety after it had strayed from its paddock and taken a dive into its owner's swimming pool, was a tough one.

As well as being on-call around the clock for Ingatestone, the boys are frequently called out to across county incidents. For example to Shell Haven when two boats collided; to an emergency at Bradwell nuclear power station when its cooling system developed a fault.

Dave said: "We have to be game for anything and I think that we are. For example we are fully clued up on breathing apparatus. A state of the art smoke chamber has been built at Orsett. We train there and I am confident the Ingatestone team can tackle anything thrown at it."

"Being a retained fireman plays havoc with your social life though. You might be on your way to a restaurant with your wife and family when you are called out and believe me that's happened more than once. In other words we have to have supportive partners to be in this lark," Russell grinned.

But firemen have their lighter moments," Calvin chipped in. "Like the night we were called out to rescue a naked man locked in a public telephone box. He had been on his stag night and his mates had gone a bit over the top. The poor bloke had been there ages and was blue all over when we charged to the rescue"

Well, I don't know! And in sleepy Ingate-stone too! All I can say is that it's a good thing that as yet no ladies have joined the team!

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.