Sadly in somewhat unseasonal chilly, damp and drizzly weather today, the team was present at GMFRS Horwich Community Fire Station Open Day.

Invited by GMFRS Horwich Watch Manager Glynn McGann, a former team member and great friend of the team, we had on display our ‘Bolton Mobile 2’ Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulance, and our ‘Bolton Mobile 6’ Incident Control Vehicle.

Team members present included our Training Officer Alistair Greenough, Equipment Officer – Medical Mark Scott, Mike Marsh and Trainee Team members Neil Haigh, Heath Doran and Matthew Morris.

Also present were Support group members Iain Clarkson, Sarah Hindle and Dave Rees.

Our team members attendance was cut short when they received a call out message to an incident nearby at 15.34hrs from our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE.

There follows an account of today by Mark Scott:

The team were very pleased to be invited to take part in today’s Horwich Community Fire Station Open Day. Callout list team members Mark Scott (Medical Equipment Officer) and Alistair Greenough (Training Officer), trainee members Heath Doran, Neil Hough and Mathew Morris were joined by Support Group Members Sarah Hindle, Dave Rees and Ian Clarkeson.

Callout list member Mike Marsh joined later in the day. Team vehicles in attendance were Landrover Ambulance callsign Bolton Mobile 2 and the team’s Incident Control Vehicle callsign Bolton Mobile 6.

Members of the public came with their children to inspect fire engines and our team vehicles close up, and to ask questions of the fire fighters and the team. There were also displays and dramatic rides up high on the fire service’s Simon Snorkel aerial platform. Basic Life Support demonstrations with training dummies and a training Automatic External Defibrillator were extremely popular with children and adults alike. There seems to be a growing interest in these essential life-saving skills and the use of AEDs. The team also took the opportunity to explore and demonstrate some more advanced resuscitation techniques based on recent research findings from Seattle in North America.

During today the team received £61.83 in very kind donations from visiting members of the public.

Just as the team were preparing to leave the event Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE made contact to request an emergency response to an incident alongside Anglezarke reservoir (please see the adjacent article relating to this) so the two team vehicles departed the event on blues and twos.

We would like to thank the firefighters of Horwich Fire Station and especially Watch Managers Glynn McGann and Craig Lunt for inviting us once again to this excellent event.