I fix cars for a living and put out fires in my spare time
Sycamore PeterboroughBy day, 20-year-old Tyrell Cambridge spends his hours fixing vehicles, but when the tools are down, he swaps the workshop for the fire station.
Volunteering as a firefighter for the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade (PVFB), he never knows when he will be deployed on a job.
His interest in firefighting stretches back to childhood. Growing up, he was fascinated by toy fire engines and seeing local fire crews tackle blazes.
"It fills you with this big rush of adrenaline and all of the way to the station you're thinking what could it be," he said.
He joined the charity over a year ago, recently working on the major wildfire at Holme Fen which broke out on 8 August.
The workshop technician at Sycamore BMW, in Peterborough, says he began looking for something to do alongside his normal working hours.
"I was kind of in the market looking for something a bit more thrill-seeking," he said.
"My mum and other family members always knew that I wanted to go and do something like that to help the community and to really give back to where I am living."
Peterborough Volunteer Fire BrigadePVFB is one of only a few operational volunteer brigades in the UK and has two fire engines which are crewed by volunteer firefighters who give their service for free.
For Tyrell, this means he has to be prepared to drop what he is doing at any moment.
"Sometimes you'll be eating your dinner, you'll be asleep, you could even be in the shower or something like that, and then your alerter goes off and you've just got to drop everything that you've got and go."
He said his family and girlfriend have been supportive, even when plans have been cut short.
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Talking about the Holme Fen fire, he said: "Due to the large amount of smoke that it was putting off, I could actually see it when I was on my way to the station.
"It's just exciting every time, no matter what the job is, that buzz and that drive that you get when you're on the way is just unlike anything anyone will ever feel, unless they're in the same position doing the same job.
"When you're stressed, tired or sad at something that you might have seen at an incident everyone just pulls together and the feel of community is really strong," he said about his team.
Peterborough Volunteer Fire BrigadeA PVFB spokesperson said support from employees "enables volunteers such as Tyrell to respond during challenging incidents like the Holme Fen wildfire" adding that it "truly makes a difference".
Sarah Ager, head of business at Sycamore BMW, adds: "We are incredibly proud of Tyrell and the commitment he shows both as a valued member of our workshop team and through his work with Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade."
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