Dogsthorpe open day raises nearly £3,000 for charity

A popular open day at Dogsthorpe Fire Station raised nearly £3,000 for charity.

More than 1,000 people flooded through the doors on Saturday (July 8) for the event and helped to raise an impressive £2,725, to be split between The Fire Fighter’s Charity and other local causes.

Fun activities at the station in Dogsthorpe Road included dunk-the-firefighter, a coconut shy, face painting and a hose reel challenge where the public got behind a hose reel to extinguish flames in a simulated house.

Other popular attractions included tours of the smoke house using a thermal imaging camera, chip pan fire demonstrations and a drill by firefighters who used a ladder and MultiStar aerial appliance to rescue casualties from a simulated fire.

A blue light simulator was also a main event, in which the public were able to experience what it is like to ride a fire engine to an incident with video images of a crew responding to a call. Vivien, a 1932 Vintage Diesel Fire Engine maintained by the Vivien Fire Engine Trust, was also there along with Dennis Rolls, a vintage petrol engine from the Peterborough Volunteers Fire Brigade.

The Victims Support Unit, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) and the fire service’s incident command unit were also at the event.

Firefighter Phil Gould, who organised the event, said: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the local community once again for their amazing support as well as all our volunteers on the day. We had more than 20 off-duty firefighters along with other fire service staff, family and friends helping out on the day.”

Money raised from the event will be split between The Fire Fighter’s Charity and other local causes, which will be decided by the organising committee.

Photos from the event can be viewed on our Flickr page here.