When most people think of the fire service, they picture the firefighters at the sharp end, tackling fires and saving lives.

But before they spring into action, there are highly skilled control room operators handling calls from the public, often when they are at their most distressed.

Whether their house is burning down or someone needs rescuing from water or they’ve witnessed a tragedy, the control personnel have a tough job, balancing compassion with fact finding, and deploying the right fire engines, specialist kit and officers to the scene.

Eight new Kent Fire and Rescue Service control room operators have just completed an intense 13-week training course, and have since attended their formal passing out ceremony at the service’s headquarters in Tovil, Maidstone.

One such new recruit is Clare Gordon, 34, from Strood, who dealt with a 999 call from a very distressed caller shortly after passing her training.

Clare said: “I was very nervous as it was one of my first calls, but I put my training into practice, stayed calm and set about finding the facts and making sure the person on the line was safe.

“That was my main concern as they were very distressed, and I needed them to leave the property as a priority.

“I suppose you could say I was a bit like a swan - calm and collected on the surface but paddling like crazy underneath.”

Friends and family of the recruits were proudly watching during their passing out ceremony which was attended by the service’s chief executive, Ann Millington.

She said: “Our control room operators are the front line of the front line.

“They are the first to command an incident, it’s an incredibly tough role and they deal with some very difficult situations.

“All of our new recruits passed their final assessment with flying colours and we’re so proud of them.

“Their training is now complete but this is only the start, there’s so much more learning to come, it never ends.”

Call handlers are based at the Fire and Police Control Centre which is operated from the Kent Police headquarters in Maidstone.

• To find out more about call handler vacancies, visit the KFRS website for details. You can also sign up for alerts for new jobs by visiting the jobs section on www.kent.fire-uk.org