Control Operator Sammie Adamson.
Control Operator Sammie is a reassuring voice at the end of phone when in uniform and out of uniform she puts her voice to equally good use as a singing teacher.
Her history with CDDFRS runs deep, for at 14, she became a Fire Cadet with Durham Station.
And a week after her 17th birthday, in 2018, she become an apprentice within the service.
Since joining, she’s held roles as a Firefighter Apprentice and in the Governance department, before moving to control at the start of Covid-19.
She’s also on the Trauma Support Team, a voluntary role that sees specially trained Sammie offer trauma support to colleagues involved in critical incidents. Offering confidential, practical and emotional support.
When asked what’s the best part of her job, she said: “My watch - I know it sounds super cliché but the watches are like little families.
“You’re spending 11 hour days and 13 hour nights with them and in control two people must be in the room at all times so there’s no getting away from each other and yet, it works.
“I’m very lucky to work with the people that I do in control overall and the watches on stations, but especially lucky to be part of my watch.”
And the best thing about working for CDDFRS in her opinion is that the service ‘gets things done.’
She said: “No matter how stressful things are we find a way around it and it gets done to the best of our ability.”
Away from her role in control, Sammie is an accomplished singer, having passed her Grade 8 singing exams with distinction – an exam she passed during Covid, recording from her gran’s spare bedroom.
The 22-year-old is also the proud owner of two Guinea Pigs, named Phil and Colin – after Sammie’s favourite musician, and a Jack Russell, named Sadie, that she shares with her gran.
When she’s not at work, she loves spending time with her partner – a fellow control operator – or acting as a singing teacher at the Polka School of Music.
She’s a performer too, having appeared in productions at the Sunderland Empire.
