Fire Officer relishes opportunity to serve local communities in Mid Lothian, East Lothian, and Scottish Borders

With almost 29 years of service, the newly appointed Local Senior Officer (LSO) will now oversee the Mid Lothian, East Lothian, and Scottish Borders area.

After filling in the coupon in The Stirling Observer, he started his career as a firefighter in his hometown of Stirling in 1995 where he was a Crew Commander and Watch Commander. 

He’s also been a training instructor and part of Operational Intelligence, Central Staffing and People teams. He was involved in Glasgow’s COP26, as well as maintaining operational staffing levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

With around 21 years of frontline experience, he has attended fires involving domestic, commercial and farm buildings, explosions, large scale industrial incidents, flooding and water and line rescues. 

Two years ago, he led on a large SFRS response to a widespread flooding incident which affected areas across the north of Scotland.  

He said: “Care homes were flooded, dog walkers missing, families were on top of cars and in houses with flood water coming in through their windows. When you join the Service, you don’t know what you are going to - but you are ready to respond, and you apply the skills you have learned. We also work very closely with our partners to ensure people receive welfare support and that shows you the value of the SFRS and our partners.

He added that the support doesn’t stop when the incident ends.

He said: “We are still involved with recovery to get back to normality. Work never stops even when the emergency part is over and that is a core value of the SFRS, we continue to provide support to the community – pre, during and post incident.” 

Helping to make communities resilient is a priority for the SFRS. As a previous Watch Commander, Marc led on safety campaigns where he worked with local food banks, sheltered housing complexes and schools. Marc is looking forward to getting involved in local initiatives.

He said: “Our communities have changed, and the Service is adapting to support communities through our prevention work. We are always innovative, with public safety at our heart. Whether it is safety in the countryside, being aware of risks of outdoor barbeques, around waterways, on roads and in our homes by offering Home Fire Safety Visits. There is excellent work in the area already. We are also across three local authority areas, and we will work together to understand the common and unique needs of each area.” 

Marc’s area also includes four wholetime (full time) fire stations and 18 on call fire stations. 

He said: “It’s a diverse rural area, served by a large on call community, who often go above and beyond to protect their local communities. They are critical to the Service and I’m looking forward to working with them.  

Away from the SFRS, Marc is married to Louise, and they have two children, Lewis, 20 and Ross, 19. Hobbies include walking their dog, hill walking, cycling, and watching his local football team, Stirling Albion. 

Louise was also a firefighter, she worked as a Watch Commander, Fire Safety Officer in Stirling, she has now retired. As firefighters with a young family, they juggled their childcare with protecting their community.  

Marc recalled a time when they handed over their childcare arrangements at an incident. 

He said: “When the kids were aged around three and four, Louise was in charge of an incident that I had to take over. I drove down with the kids, got changed, took over the incident and then Louise got changed and took the kids home. They were wanting to see what was happening, but we made sure they were kept at a safe distance.” 

Watching their firefighter parents has instilled community values in their children with their youngest son Ross, considering the role.  

Marc said: “With firefighters as parents, they have grown up seeing public service as important, that we are all here to help each other. 

“As a family, the Service was always supportive of us, which was important to me. I don’t think I missed a school concert or football game. We made it work for us by changing roles which gave us flexibility to spend time with the kids.  

Now Marc is looking forward to getting settled into his new role and learn as much as he can about the communities he will serve.  

He said: “This role has a lot of responsibility to deliver for the communities we serve. I want them to see us as a professional organisation they can trust and are reassured that when we arrive, we are going to make things better.  

“I have loved being in the Service. I’ve contributed in ways I never thought possible. Public service is something I hold close and it’s why I completed that job coupon all those years ago.”