Whittlesey firefighters to celebrate 50 years in the town with fun-filled open day

A fun-filled open day has been planned at Whittlesey Fire Station to celebrate its 50 years of history in the town.

Old and new will be the theme of the day on Saturday 3rd June between 11.30am and 3.30pm, with events planned to celebrate both the history as well as the modern-day life of the on-call station.

Family-friendly events include ‘dunk the firefighter’, bouncy castle, BBQ, teas, ice creams and a tombola. Modern-day fire engines will be on display too, along with a Blue Light simulator where video images of a ‘shout’ (call out) are projected onto a screen to recreate what it is like to ride a fire engine to an emergency incident.

Firefighter Mark Rogers, who is organising the event, has also gone for a museum type theme for the day, with a 1932 Diesel Fire Engine on display. The engine, known as Vivien, is maintained by the Vivien Fire Engine Trust.

As well as Vivien, there will be old photos of the station and its firefighters over the past 50 years, as well as an old uniform on display, complete with brass helmet.  Whittlesey’s Town Mayor will attend and the station’s on-call firefighters will perform a drill.

Station Commander Giles Grainger said it will be a special day for the station, which has a real presence in the town. “Whittlesey is a close-knit community. The station is very much a close-knit family and everybody knows everybody in the town and everybody supports everybody in the town,” he said. As part of the 50th celebrations, the station is also commissioning a fire service related wall mural, to be unveiled in July.

Tim Shuker-Yates and Kyle Warwick, 24, from the Girton Youth Project, will be designing the mural as part of the celebrations. Tim, who has a degree in art and works with young people in art education as well as in counselling, has designed wall murals with Kyle, a naturally-talented artist, at several academies all over Cambridgeshire, as well as a doctors surgery.

Organiser Mark Rogers said: “It’s been a great event to organise and should be a lot of fun on the day so make sure you bring all your friends and family along.”

On-call firefighters are trained professionals who respond to emergencies in their communities alongside their day-to-day lives. They may be at home, work or out and about when they receive a pager alert calling them to an incident. Some have other jobs and respond to 999 emergencies while they are at work thanks to the support of local employers, who recognise the importance of allowing their staff to respond to incidents. There are also benefits to the employer and employee as on-call firefighters receive new skills and training which they may be able to use in their full-time jobs as well.

On-call firefighters have to be aged 18 and over, have a good level of all-round fitness and live or work within a five minute travel time of an on-call fire station.