IT was about 8 p.m. on a Tuesday evening and St. George's Fire Brigade Chief Gareth Adderley was staring perplexedly at a telephone pole.

The pole, which was upside down, had been wrenched out of the ground during Hurricane Fabian and tossed into the narrow backyard of a St. George's resident. There it leaned on a wall next to another pole, which was still in place.

"But where did it come from?" asked the chief, flashing his flashlight through the dark.

There were three other poles in the immediate vicinity, all of which appeared to be in place and intact, and no clues as to where the upside down pole had materialised from. There was, however, evidence of a tornado ripping through the area - the trunk of one nearby casuarina tree had been corkscrewed right around itself. Perhaps the tornado was the culprit?

Tornado or not, clearly the pole needed to be removed from the backyard - and the St. George's Volunteer Fire Brigade was ready for the job, complete with chainsaw to break it up in case it was too difficult to manoeuvre whole.

To the disappointment of some, the chainsaw proved unnecessary as four or five men lifted the pole over the wall and rested it on the other side, bracing it to stop it from rolling. But further down the road there was still hope for a little chainsaw action in the form of a massive casurina tree which had been ripped from the ground and lay across the entrance to the Alexandra Battery.

The men eyed the massive tree in awe before deciding that not only was it too large to tackle at night, but the noise of the chainsaw would hardly be appreciated by neighbours. Instead they scheduled the tree for a chainsaw trimming on Saturday during the day, and returned to the Fire Station, where other members of the brigade were spring cleaning after ten days of camping out at the station in the wake of Hurricane Fabian.

The St. George's Volunteer Fire Brigade is not part of the Bermuda Fire Service. The Bermuda Fire Service was formed when, years ago, the Corporation of Hamliton sold its own brigade to Government.

The Corporation of St. George's elected not to sell its brigade to Government. However, "we work hand-in-hand with the Bermuda Fire Service and are dispatched through them", said the chief.

Chief Adderley, who has been chief since 2000, is a paid full-time chief. He has been working for the Corporation of St. George's since 1996, and next year will be his 25th anniversary as a firefighter.

He is one of only four members of the brigade who receive pay for their work. The second-in-charge, Lt. Anthony Tucker, on retainer for the Corporation, doubles as dock manager for St. George's. Retained firefighter Gerry Darrell also works out of the Corporation workshops above the fire station, and Courtney Trott is an administrative officer in the Corporation main office. The other 35 or so members of the brigade (including two women) are volunteers.

Years ago, explained Chief Adderley, the majority of the volunteers worked outside the town of St. George's, meaning only he and the other three retained firefighters were available to respond to emergency calls during the day.

Now, however, there more members of the brigade that work on the eastern side of the Causeway.

"Per call we averaged seven men out of the station in under five minutes for the last three years," said the chief. They are also now able to work in conjunction with the Clearwater Fire Department, part of the Bermuda Fire Service, which adds to their manpower. And while they may be volunteers, they are trained as professionals. The firefighters train every Tuesday evening for two hours. "It's the whole spectrum of everything they need to know to become a professional firefighter," said Chief Adderley.

"Everything" includes hosework, ladderwork, breathing apparatus and ventilation, building construction and collapse, search and rescue, first aid and CPR, forcible entry, even classes on the chemistry of fire.

BERMUDA Fire Service's Lt. Manuel Lopes is their training officer, and Divisional Officer Charles Harris - who Chief Adderley described as "a wealth of knowledge" after being in the service for over 50 years - occasionally gives lectures.

"They do overseas training, they train with the airport fire department and do crash and rescue, they're fully qualified and competent of doing anything they're called on to do," said Chief Adderley.

Such a level of professionalism is very necessary. The area the brigade services includes not only the town of St. George's, which is a World Heritage Site with numerous places of great historical value, but also the cruise ships and dock area as well as the Bermuda International Airport.

Normally - besides, of course, fighting fires - the brigade takes care of "special services" such as pumping out boats or tanks, even houses that have been flooded when the water is left running. "All sorts of things," said Chief Adderley. "We don't do cats in trees but we do telephone poles in yards."

And, in circumstances such as those facing St. George's during and after Hurricane Fabian, the brigade takes on even more importance.

"From experience of previous hurricanes, the EMO (Emergency Measures Organisation) thought the Causeway would become impassable," said Chief Adderley.

For that reason plans were made to keep St. George's self-sufficient.

Dr. Andrew West was the doctor on call, and the hospital lent an ambulance. The fire brigade also had two EMTs as well as an EMTI (Emergency Medical Technician Intravenous), and ER trauma nurses were available.

During the actual storm, the medical team, in tandem with the fire brigade, responded to people with a range of medical conditions. They treated a 17-month-old baby with a fever and a Belco worker who had split his head open, suspected appendicitis and an 11-year-old who was stung in the toe by a centipede - among others.

"Due to the fact that the Causeway was down and the Clearwater fire truck was so occupied we were fortunate to have personnel with the qualifications and training to do the job," said Chief Adderley.

"Our first priority in the hurricane was life as always, then property."

The St. George's Fire Brigade also assisted in the repeated attempts to rescue the four people trapped on the Causeway during the hurricane, with volunteers putting their lives at considerable risk. However, with the incident still under investigation, Chief Adderley could not elaborate on the part his brigade played.

"We were there, we just assisted the Bermuda Fire Service in their endeavours to perform a rescue," was all he could say. "We would like the families to know our thoughts are with them.

"I don't think we ever thought of the devastation the storm actually caused (to the Causeway)," he said. However, even with St. George's cut off from the rest of Bermuda except by boat, he said the fire brigade received no calls it could not have dealt with using the equipment and personnel it had.

"If we would've needed them they would have been there," he said of the Clearwater Fire Station, "and vice versa. We were very fortunate in our area that we didn't really get any major fires."

After the hurricane, people would often show up at the fire station asking for help with repairs, said the chief. Those people could not understand why the firefighters had to send them away, telling them to dial 911 instead.

"There has to be some sort of accountability," he said. "The only way it could be done was through the central dispatching system. It's not because we didn't want to help them, it's because there are protocols that we follow in the fire service."

Most of the volunteers lived at the fire station during and in the days after the hurricane. Although there is a dormitory, it was under reconstruction, so they slept on mattresses in the fire station common room. The station also has showers and a kitchen, and every member of the brigade has a key to the facility.

A volunteer fire brigade is not a venture that draws a lot of revenue, however. So how do they maintain their facility and their trucks? The brigade is funded with an administrative grant from Government, and shortfalls are subsidised by the Corporation of St. George's. This helps cover training materials, salaries, vehicular repairs, bunker gear (the fire-proof protective gear). But it does not cover it all.

And then there are the big purchases. For example, it is a policy in the majority of fire departments around the world to buy new fire vehicles every 12 to 15 years. The St. George's Fire Brigade technically has two fire engines. One, which was replaced by Government seven years ago, is still used as a fire engine, however the other is used only as a salvage truck - because it is 43 years old.

PURCHASED in 1960, the truck was bought along with three engines for the Hamilton Fire Brigade after the Bermudiana Hotel fire. It was still used every day in the wake of the hurricane, however it is no longer serviceable as a fire engine.

That means the St. George's Fire Brigade has only one serviceable fire engine. And, as Chief Adderley said, the day they respond to an emergency call and that truck fails to start - what then?

"We were in talks with the Minister of Labour & Home Affairs in the last administration to replace it, so we're applying for the 2005 Budget," he said.

They are also taking matters into their own hands, however. As individuals the volunteers had started going to banks and exempt companies in a bid to raise money for the new truck as well as other gear - in particular, emergency pagers for all active members of the service. Currently, only about half the volunteers have pagers for emergency call-outs.

Realising this was a "piecemeal approach", last March volunteer members came together to form the St. George's Fire Brigade Association.

"Forming an association makes us more of a real entity," said association president Sgt. Kevin Benevides. "We became a registered charity - which is a big deal."

The brigade already holds an annual Christmas golf tournament, and the association is building from there.

"It's our first year so we're not going overboard, we're finding our way with strengths and weaknesses so we can organise better events next year," said association public relations officer Nick West.

"We're trying to focus on the most immediate needs of the brigade first."

Chief Adderley seems proud of his men (and women). Not only does the brigade fight fires, but members are also involved in fire safety and education, visiting schools and offering CPR and first aid classes to the community.

Almost three-quarters of the brigade's volunteers are between the ages of 18 and 25, giving the area's young adults a chance to serve the community and learn valuable skills. While many have entered in lieu of doing regimental duty, the chief noted, they usually stay beyond that.

"It's more of a brotherhood, a big family.

"They train hard and then, after training, we cook food," he said "Tonight we're ordering pizza. We'll hang out till around 11, 12 o'clock.

"They know when to work and they know when to play, where and when to draw the line."