Why I salute these amazing people

Suddenly there's a clanging of deafening bells; blinding lights make it hard to see.

My heart's pounding. I've got seconds to get out of bed, clamber into my clothes, slide down a 20ft pole, pull on my firefighter's uniform and clamber aboard the engine, ready for anything from a house fire to a car crash.

This may sound like a disturbing dream - but this is my experience with the Red Watch firefighters at Springbourne station in Bournemouth.

And it has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life - spending two days and two nights living the life of a firefighter at the station, manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I was with such a great team consisting of watch manager Mark Wilkinson (nickname Sumo), crew manager and firefighter Karen Ewens , firefighter and driver Jason Bethell, firefighters James Everett and James Goldsmith and trainee firefighter Justin French.

I had the utmost respect for people like them before I joined up for a tour (the name for the 46-hour shift) but now my admiration for these amazing people knows no bounds.

Some people think firefighters sit around drinking tea until they get the call. Not so.

The reality is that when they're not out educating the public on fire safety, or being called out to fires and accidents, they are practising drills or training to ensure they are fit for action.

Although once the domain of the male, firefighting is a job for both men and women.

Although considerations have been made for females, such as easier access to ladders and separate shower facilities, it takes a certain type of person to be a firefighter.

The most striking quality I discovered with Red Watch - and the Westbourne firefighters we worked with - was strength of both body and mind.

They face gruesome situations. They are likely to have to carry badly burned bodies out of flaming buildings.

But they have got to stay focused and work methodically to ensure their safety, the safety of their colleagues and, of course, the public.

Mark "Sumo" Wilkinson is an amazing man. He's had to carry dead children out of burning buildings and cut people out of cars.

He has seen horrible things, including a decapitated body, but he says: "You get used to it, or as much as you can."

It takes a strong person to be able to deal with these situations. Mark says that it can feel as if you're walking through treacle - but reports show these firefighters achieve rapid results.

On the second day of the tour I was taken to the training ground at Redhill to take part in a staged rescue inside a building filled with smoke.

But before we could even get the breathing apparatus on, the bells went and we were called out on a job - an alarm at an industrial estate in Wallisdown.

It's amazing how quickly these people move. In turn, I was stunned with how fast I was able to react.

Back at Redhill again, we get another call. This time it's smoke in the cockpit of a plane at Bournemouth Airport. Seven people are on board.

Roads have been closed and people move quickly out of the way. On occasions like this, two engines are allowed on the runway due to security; others are called if needed. We remain on standby until it is safe to go.

Back at Redhill, we finally get to go through the drill.

Faced with a very realistic scenario, I soon realise how frightening a house fire is.

I had been briefed on the situation. The first team would go in following the right-hand wall, and we would go in, 10 minutes later, following the wall on the left. There were two dummy bodies reported to be inside.

As the doors shut behind me, everything went dark. The heat was overwhelming, uniform and equipment were heavy. The air was filled with smoke and I couldn't see a thing.

Holding on to Sumo's air tank - you must always stick together - I felt my heart pounding.

I heard shouts to my side. I could feel myself starting to panic. I called to Sumo. He turned and asked if I was okay.

I said: "I feel a bit weird, Sumo." He got me to concentrate on my heart rate and slow it down. I was staggered by how quickly I was able to carry on.

Following the wall, we started to scour the area, moving our arms up and down and feeling the ground around us with our feet. The first team shouted that they had found someone. Almost immediately we became aware of the second "body".

Sumo grabbed the dummy's shoulders, and I took the legs. We carefully turned around and moved back out through the building, again following the wall.

What an amazing experience. It proved to me how, despite extreme heat and darkness, firefighters are able to keep their cool.

The excitement continued when, on the way back to Springbourne, we were called to a student block in Bournemouth.

It was Freshers' Week, and that meant burnt food, mainly due to negligence.

It's quite a common occurrence, but every second wasted attending a false alarm or trivial incident could mean a potentially fatal delay on a serious collision or fire.

During the two days and two nights, my eyes were opened to all sorts of scenarios.

On one of the night shifts, for example, we were practising an RTA (road traffic accident).

We had two cars in the yard set up as if they had been involved in a nasty collision.

In one of the cars, Karen Ewens was acting as the casualty so she could experience how it feels.

Within 30 minutes, firefighters from Springbourne and Westbourne had taken the car apart and "rescued" her, which, considering they give themselves a "golden hour" for non-fatalities, was fantastic.

Just as I was using one of the cutting tools to slice through the frame of the car door, the bells clanged once more. It was time to make a move.

The team worked quickly to ensure they left the site safe, and we headed off to the Royal Arcade in Boscombe, where an alarm was going off.

It was a false alarm, triggered by burnt popcorn in one of the offices.

On this tour, we'd experienced everything from a skate ramp fire in Townsend to a lock-out where a woman left the gas fire on and a bin fire in Boscombe.

On extinguishing the bin fire, two men walked by, and one asked: "Are you sure there's not a bomb in there?"

Unfortunately, that's something firefighters must now consider. Karen says it's all about judging the situation and dealing with it in the right way.

The way in which firefighters deal with the public is admirable. They are kind, considerate and act on situations before they get worse.

One night, we saw a man staggering in the road. We stopped to ask if he was okay.

He told us he was suffering from asthma, admitted to being a drug addict and said he felt as if he couldn't breathe.

The team gave him oxygen to calm him down and then called an ambulance.

Firefighter James Everett said that by defusing the situation they could be preventing a potential car accident.

People mistook me for a full-time firefighter and I felt unbelievably proud.

If I were to try and explain all the things that happened during the tour, I would have to write a book.

Instead, I can tell you that Red Watch are able to get on the engine within 11 seconds, and they work as a team, whether on a call-out or cooking for each other during shifts. And they've got a wicked sense of humour.

Firefighters are fit, love sports and train hard because they have to.

In 2002, British firefighters took to the streets to demand more pay. I can now see why.

If you think these people are prepared to put their lives on the line to save us and then compare their wages to those of some of our so-called celebrities, it can make you quite angry.

I'm going to miss Red Watch - but each time I hear the sirens, I'll be sure to get out of their way and wave as they pass by.