I thought it was about time that I put finger to computer and gave a little update into the departments work in the last few months.

We now have a new fire engine (Fifi) which is owned by me. She has high and low pressure hoses which makes her very useful for grass fires. I have spent over £6000 on her getting the pump and the bodywork in A1 condition and she has proved herself a useful appliance already.

The department has carried out training sessions at CRC and recently at Winchcombe where we practiced getting a person in a wheelchair off the train in the middle of nowhere. This was a very useful exercise and we have now perfected the safest method of extraction if we needed to remove a disabled passenger from the train track side.

The first aid team have also been busy training and have all passed oxygen and AED training. We have dealt with many first aid incidents the latest being a member of the loco dept. who burnt their face with steam whilst disconnecting coaching stock. I am pleased to report that due to them doing the best thing and putting water on the burn, and the rapid intervention of proper first aid by the team they have made a full recovery with no scaring.

The land rover fire engine has recently passed MOT after much work being done on it. The department paid for the repair work from its own funds. It now just needs a paint job so it is not looking so sad and unloved.

You may have also seen a huge Dennis fire engine at the department. This belongs to one of our latest recruits Pete. He also owns a couple of police cars which were present at the recent emergency services weekend. He owns one of the unmarked cars which started in Road wars.

We are still short of team members so if you fancy joining a very small dedicated fun team get in touch. You can also just drop over and have a chat we don't bite and we may even put the kettle on.