Rochdale borough manager retires after 30 years

Dave Kirkham(left) with County Fire Officer Steve McGuirk

Rochdale’s Borough Manager is retiring after almost 30 years at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS).

Dave Kirkham is leaving the service next week to spend more time with his family and his new baby granddaughter.

He joined the fire service in September 1982, starting his career on Green Watch at Blackley Fire Station.

“I wanted to do something that I knew would be rewarding”, he said, “Something that would offer me the opportunity to do so many different things almost on a daily basis – you just never knew what the day would bring.”

In April 1985 Mr Kirkham was transferred to Green Watch at Oldham to be nearer to his daughter who had been born with a hip problem.

She had to spend the first six months of her life in plaster from the waist down, so GMFRS gave Mr Kirkham a transfer nearer to his home so he could visit his daughter in hospital regularly.

Later he was promoted and posted to Mossley and then to Gorton which, at the time, was one of the busiest stations not only in GMFRS but in the UK as a whole.

From Gorton he moved to work in fire safety at Manchester Central for a short time before returning to operations as a Station Officer on his old watch at Blackley.

He then returned to Gorton, this time as Station Commander and then as Staff Officer to the Divisional Commander again based at Manchester Central.

Following a divisional review, he took on a Community Fire Safety role and spent just under two years at Fire Service Headquarters in Swinton as a project manager on the ‘Target Fire’ project.

This was the first time the service had trained teams to deliver Home Safety Checks, and for Mr Kirkham this was his biggest challenge.

He said: “It was done at a time when the organisation had just come out of the national dispute and many of our staff felt this was yet another chipping away at their role by taking on non-uniformed support staff to deliver the programme.
 
“In fact nothing could be further from the truth and that scheme has gone on to be the pre-cursor to operational and other personnel now delivering this highly successful initiative.”

Mr Kirkham was later posted to the new Stockport Borough Command where he spent three years before being temporarily promoted as Borough Commander for Bolton in September 2008.

He settled in quickly, due to “a great borough team and tremendous operational personnel” and describes his time at Bolton as “undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable and rewarding” times of his career.

But this role also saw the terrible house fire in Little Holme Walk, Great Lever, in which fire-fighter Steve Morris suffered 50 per cent burns as he tried to rescue a mother-of-six.

Mr Kirham said: “Because our job is so much ‘can do’ when there is literally nothing you can do and it is one of your own it’s really hard to describe that feeling of complete inadequacy. 

“I was overwhelmed by the determination of everyone there to support Steve in whatever way possible including members of the Borough Management Team travelling to China to trek the Great Wall on Steve’s behalf and to raise an astonishing amount of money for which they deserve enormous credit.”

 Following his time at Bolton, Mr Kirkham returned to Manchester for a short time before being posted to Rochdale in September 2010.

“Managing at times has been challenging”, he said, “Particularly over the last nine years or so with all of the changes that GMFRS has faced. However, it’s very rare that our personnel don’t make whatever it is work and much of the success we’ve seen in terms of incident reduction, new initiatives and safer communities has been as a result of them ‘grasping the nettle’ and delivering those changes.”

Mr Kirkham admits he is nervous about retirement after spending more than half his life at GMFRS.

 “But I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family”, he said, “My wife Sue, my daughters Leanne, 27, and Rachael, who will be 21 in June, and especially my 10-month-old granddaughter who is just taking her first steps.

 “As well as that I’ll be finding time to do many of the things that have taken a back seat whilst being at work so, all in all, exciting times are ahead.”