Late this morning and in to early afternoon as part of the teams on going process of liaising and demonstrating our capabilities with Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service, the team visited Broughton Fire Station (W59) for a vehicle and team equipment demonstration visit.

Team member Chris Greenhalgh is a GMFRS Firefighter based at this fire station and it was to his watch, Green Watch, that we made the presentation today.

Our visit commenced with our Team Leader Garry Rhodes and our Deputy Leader Geoff Seddon giving an overview to the assembled firefighters of how the team operates.

All then assembled within the appliance bay where our 15 attending team members had completely emptied the contents of our BM1 and BM3 Mountain Rescue Landrover Ambulances.

The Firefighters present from Green Watch, Broughton along with colleagues from Green Watch Agecroft had the opportunity to view our wide range of Search and Rescue Equipment and ask questions regards its use to the team members present.

Our team members then had the opportunity to view the two Pump Appliances W59 and W591 based at Broughton and the Pump Appliance W60 based at Agecroft. Team members also had the chance to look over the GMFRS ICU (Incident Command Unit) also based at Agecroft and brought to Broughton especially for our visit.

Our visit concluded with a walk-around and demonstration of all the equipment carried on a standard GMFRS Pump Appliance. (with thanks to Firefighter Chris Greenhalgh, who has never told his MRT colleagues that his Fire Service nickname is Jezza Greenhalgh, thanks also to Firefighter “Billy” Battersby).

Our visit finally ended with team members having a go with the light hose reel which rapidly descended into a waterfight between team member Sam McKay and a Firefighter. No prizes for guessing who won…

The team would like to extend its thanks to Green Watch Manager, Broughton Fire Station Neil Constantine for agreeing to the visit and for the ready welcome he gave to our team members.