Celebrating The Pratt Family This Father's Day

This Father’s Day, we’re celebrating a very special family based at Hucknall Fire Station.

The Pratt family have collectively given thousands of hours to their local community over the years – and today, we’re highlighting three of them.

Meet Mark, his son Marcus, and granddaughter Olivia. Together, they provide around 325 hours of on-call availability every week, responding to emergencies in Hucknall and the surrounding areas.

After 30 years of dedicated service, Mark has recently retired – but his legacy lives on through his family on station who continue to serve their local community with pride.

Marcus, who balances his on-call role with his full-time position as a wholetime firefighter at London Road, reflected on his journey: “My journey with the service started 13 years ago when I started as an on-call firefighter at Hucknall and within four years I could act up in charge of the truck. When I saw an opportunity to work for the service full time as the Apprenticeship Lead, I jumped at the chance.

“Throughout this journey there has been so many proud moments, like attending the Service’s annual awards ceremony along with my dad when he received his 25 year medal, passing out of training school myself as an on call firefighter, helping new firefighter apprentices along their journey and gaining passes and distinctions, and most recently seeing my daughter work really hard to become a firefighter herself.”

Becoming a firefighter is never easy – and for Olivia, the recruitment journey was a challenge she rose to with determination.

Olivia said: “If I’m being honest, joining the Service was a little stressful. You really have to focus because you’re competing against a lot of other people. But it's so worth it – I felt really proud to have passed, to put on the uniform, and to have attended training school.

“My first house fire, I went with my dad. I didn’t have time to think – I just did what I was trained to do. Afterwards, he said, “How do you feel? You’ve just had your first house fire with me!” then of course came the dad-style lecture on what I could have done better. But at that moment I didn’t see him as my dad – I saw him as my Crew Manager helping me improve, just like he would with anyone else.”

Today, on Father’s Day, we are celebrating all the dads and father figures in and across Nottinghamshire, especially those in our Service – past and present – including those like Mark, who’ve passed on their passion and values to the next generation.

If you’ve ever thought about joining our fire family, then now is the time. Register your interest to become a firefighter today!