Children (and adults) explore station and learn about fire safety

MORE than 50 people attended an open evening at Henley fire station, writes Emma Dodd.

Queues formed in West Street ahead of the event on December 21, which raised £620 for the Fire Fighter’s Charity.

The station had been decorated with lights and tinsel while inside there was a chance to meet Father Christmas and his elves. There was also an information stand, toy stall and a raffle.

Residents had the chance to explore one of the station’s fire trucks as well as watch the crew demonstrate how to use specialist equipment.

Stickers and chocolates were handed out to visitors and a mobile coffee pod provided hot drinks.

Crew manager Andy Gosby, 37, handed out carbon monoxide and heat alarms as well as leaflets with fire safety tips and recruitment information.

Mr Gosby, who has been at the station for 19 years, said: “We haven’t done a charity event at this station for quite a while so a couple of months ago we thought to have a look at doing a Christmas event.

“The community has been really great with donating Christmas decorations, lights and all sorts of things like that and the businesses in Henley have donated prizes for our amazing raffle.”

Mr Gosby added the station was also providing information on the safe and well checks the station offers, which is a free home visit in which members of the crew assess a building for fire risk.

Following the assessment, a free smoke detector alarm is fitted, if required, and crew members will discuss home escape plans and provide educational advice to lower the risk of fire.

Former Henley Crew member Ralph Burrows, from Wargrave, was helping to run the raffle.

Mr Burrows, 21, who runs his own website design business, was pleased to come back to help out. He said: “All the money from the raffle goes to the Fire Fighter’s Charity, which helps support injured firefighters, firefighters’ families and mental healthcare as well. So, it’s really important for us.”

The station currently has eight on-call firefighters on its books but is looking for 10 more recruits to help keep the community safe.

Mr Burrows said that being a firefighter was a job like no other. “The life skills you learn,” he said, “you can’t get them anywhere else. It’s a really good station because it’s on-call, so everyone does other things as well. Everyone’s in education or doing other work and then they come in and help whenever the pager goes off.

“In the role we do anything — fires, road traffic collisions, answer alarms and community engagement, such as going into schools and teaching children about fire safety. It’s a bit of everything.

“The fact that you could be doing an office job one minute and then two minutes later you’re in the back of a fire truck going towards anything, it’s crazy. There’s no other job like it.”

Mr Burrows was helped on the stall by Mr Gosby’s wife Rosie Gosby-Dolby and crew member Katy Snoodyk. Ms Snoodyk, of Vicarage Road, said that she had always wanted to be a firefighter but was unsure if it would be possible with her day job.

However, as the station allows its crew to live or work five minutes away or work remotely from the station she was able to take on the role alongside her job as a project manager for Greenwich City Council.

“I always wanted to do it but I wasn’t really sure that you could,” she said. “Then, on a whim, I decided why not, what can go wrong? And I love it.

“It’s an amazing crew and it’s wonderful that we get to do this for our community and be part of it and it really is the best job in the world.

“When little kids are amazed by fire trucks you can say ‘I’m a grown-up and I get to play fire trucks.’”

Crew manager Michael Clarke said that the open day had been really successful. He said: “It’s gone really well. We started at 4.30pm but there were queues of kids and parents at about quarter past asking to come in, so we couldn’t let them down. There has been a steady, slow stream of people in and out.

“Lots of people don’t realise where we are because we’re just tucked away behind the town hall. We thought, if we open up, more people will know where we are and we can speak to the parents about fire safety as well as recruitment.”

Mr Clarke said that the station had run similar events in the past but that it could sometimes be difficult with crew members being on call.

He said he would like to thank crew members from Goring fire station who helped with the event as well as providing cover for the Goring and Henley station.

Mr Clarke said: “We did one a couple of years back and we did it during the day, so this time we thought we’d do it at night-time so it would have a bit more of an effect with all the Christmas lights. Hopefully we’ll do it every year because this year has been a great success.”

Harriet Sutton, from Highmoor, brought along her daughter Daisy, six. She said: “I knew the fire station was here, but I’d never heard of it having kind of an open event like this.

“I think it’s really well done and obviously being able to go in the fire engine is exciting for the kids. With Father Christmas and his elves here as well, I was surprised by how good it was.”

Bronnie Vienna, said that her twin boys Byron and Beau, both five, had been looking forward to the open evening all week. She said: “We are really grateful that the station opens up and encourages people to have a look.”