Nursery worker's second job: putting out fires

Tracey Laws lives within five minutes of Bishop Auckland Fire Station

A mother-of-two says her professional life marries the "best of both worlds" - working with children during the day, and fighting fires at night.

Tracey Laws, a nursery practitioner and Army veteran, was recently recruited as a paid, on-call firefighter with the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, as part of a major drive to fill vacancies across several stations.

On-call firefighters are paid a retaining fee, alongside their full-time jobs, and an hourly rate for routine training and call-outs.

"I can work at nursery with children, and then I get to do this - it's everything I love," says the 44-year-old, from Bishop Auckland.

Tracey, a former lance corporal, left the Army after her second child was born, before re-training in childcare

Ms Laws works Monday to Friday at the nursery, then clocks on for her firefighting role from home and stays on-call from 15:00 to 06:00 every night, as well as working some weekends.

She says she was inspired to join the service after seeing a fire-training exercise taking place near the nursery where she works. She hopes to one day become a full-time firefighter.

She says her "adrenaline pumps" when she is a alerted to an incident via her pager.

"You get in the car, get here [the fire station], and straight away you're in work mode.

"You get out, then go and attack whatever the situation is - or help whoever needs helping."

On-call firefighters can commit to between 60 to 80 hours per week, but large amounts of this can be spent on-call, rather than working.

"It's flexible... as long as you can give what you can give, that's it," says Ms Laws.

"I love helping people. I can work at nursery with children and then I get to do this - so it's everything I love."

Fire chiefs say there is a "particular need" for on-call personnel in Stanhope, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Barnard Castle, High Handenhold, Crook, Sedgefield and Durham.

The fire service said applicants must live within five minutes of their local fire station, and the opportunity is open to anyone aged 17-and-a-half and over, with training provided.