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From fanning flames to firing up the kiln... Fire Service Chief Officer, Mark James, will retire after more than a decade at the end of June to help run his wife’s local ceramics business.
Prior to joining the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service in 2007, Mr James had served for 18 years with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, where he reached the rank of Deputy Director.
During his 11 years' service to Jersey, Mr James helped introduced a number of fire safety programmes and initiatives such as the Schools Fire Safety Education Programme, called ‘Sparks’, and home fire safety visits. It resulted in Jersey seeing its lowest number of fires on record since 1962 - 177 - in 2017.
Mr James also implemented initiatives aimed at improving Jersey’s Fire and Rescue Service. In partnership with the Ambulance Service, he set up a fire co-responding scheme to ensure faster attendance at medical emergencies when ambulances are not available. He then set up Jersey Search and Rescue, a lowland search and rescue charity to help locate missing vulnerable persons in the Island. He also established a new Marine Fire Response Team following the withdrawal of the UK’s equivalent capability.
In 2015, he set up the joint emergency services aerial reconnaissance team, which uses drones. It has now been deployed over 50 times assisting in the search for missing persons and supporting the emergency response.
Pictured: The aerial reconnaissance team which uses drones has been deployed over 50 times since Mr James set it up.
Last year, Mr James worked with the RNLI in order to bring the inshore lifeboat (ILB) in St Helier back into service following a dispute with the local crew. This involved utilising a cadre of firefighters from the Fire and Rescue Service to help crew and operate the St. Helier ILB, marking the first time firefighters had jointly crewed an RNLI lifeboat in the UK.
He has also been the strategic lead for Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) in Jersey. Over the last four years, hundreds of personnel from the emergency services and partner organisations have been trained in the joint working principles to help improve multi-agency response to emergencies. This culminated last year with the largest simulated major incident exercise ever held in the Channel Islands, called ‘Resilient Islands’. This took Mr James 18 months to plan, involved hundreds of emergency responders and casualties, and lasted for four days.
In October 2015, he was also appointed as the island’s Emergency Planning Officer, tasked with establishing a comprehensive emergency planning service for Jersey.
Excellent response and coordination at Exercise #resilientislands over the last two days. More to test tomorrow pic.twitter.com/s1uSizCiAX
— Sergeant Mark Ruston (@DC_OpsSergeant) March 8, 2017
Video: Mr James organised "Resilient Islands," the largest simulated major incident exercise ever held in the Channel Islands last year.
Mr James was no stranger to leadership roles in emergency situations either, having commanded the fire response to a number of high-profile fires in Jersey including the Gas Holder fire, the Broadlands Fire and the Val de la Mare wildfire. He was awarded the Fire Brigade Long Service and Good Conduct (LSGC) medal at Government House in 2009 and the Queen’s Fire Service Medal (QFSM) from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for distinguished service to the British Fire Service.
Although he is leaving the Fire and Rescue Service, Mr James is not retiring from active life altogether. He will help run his wife’s local ceramics business, Jane James Ceramics, which now includes two local shops, a production studio, an online shop and supplies ceramics to 20 galleries across the UK.
Commenting on his retirement, Mr James said: "I have had an amazing career and it has been a real honour and pleasure to lead Jersey’s Fire and Rescue Service for the past 11 years. A leader is only as good as his team and I have been very fortunate to work with some amazing people.
"I have made some good friends and had lots of support along the way. None of the initiatives, projects or improvements at the Fire and Rescue Service could have been achieved without the hard work and commitment of everyone who works at the Fire and Rescue Service."
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