When the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade calls, a 20-year-old mechanic goes

Tyrell Cambridge fixes vehicles for a living. When his shift ends, the 20-year-old Peterborough mechanic can trade the workshop for a fire station, a pager, and the chance that an ordinary evening will change without warning. Cambridge volunteers with the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, and he recently joined its response to the Holme Fen wildfire. 1

The image of a volunteer firefighter can become hazy very quickly: a uniform, a good intention, a phrase about giving back. Cambridge's account gives the role its proper edges. He has a day job. The call can come while he is having dinner, sleeping, or in the shower. Then the alerter goes off, and he leaves for the station. 1

Cambridge said he had wanted to help his community since childhood. He joined the brigade more than a year ago after looking for something to do outside his normal hours. In August, that choice brought him to Holme Fen, where a major wildfire had broken out on 8 August. 1

"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," Cambridge told the BBC. 1

At Holme Fen, Cambridge said he could see the smoke while travelling to the station. The work put him alongside other volunteers in a place where the fire had already burned through woodland. 1

Peterborough's volunteer station has an unusually formal place in local emergency response. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service says the brigade operates as a private fire brigade under a contract with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority, under the county chief fire officer's jurisdiction for emergencies and training. Its firefighters serve without pay. 2

The official station page says applicants go through the same recruitment process as wholetime and on-call firefighters. Volunteers also train for two hours every Tuesday evening. 2 The commitment sits inside ordinary schedules: paid work, meals, sleep, family plans, then a weekly training night and the possibility of a call-out.

Cambridge described the team around him as part of what keeps the demanding work possible. "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. 1

Cambridge's volunteer service also depends on people who understand what the call can require. A spokesperson for the brigade said employer support lets volunteers respond during challenging incidents such as the Holme Fen wildfire. 1

Sarah Ager, Sycamore BMW's head of business, said the company was proud of Cambridge's commitment in the workshop and with the brigade. 1 That support is easy to overlook beside a wildfire photograph. A volunteer can answer an alert because colleagues, managers and family members have also made room for the work.

Cambridge still talks about the rush of a call, the unknown job ahead, and the desire to give something back to the place where he lives. 1 The routine is more concrete than the sentiment: a young mechanic puts down one set of tools, picks up another, and joins the people waiting at the station.