In addition to the comprehensive report we made yesterday on the Second Annual Emergency Services Open Day at the Trafford Centre, Manchester, and further to the comments from GMFRS Ben Levy, Station Commander at Stretford Fire Station, and Steve McGuirk, GMFRS County Fire Officer and Chief Executive, that were contained within our report, today our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE received further comments, this time from GMFRS Andrew Dugdale, Borough Commander, Trafford, which is reproduced here for the information and interest of our readers;

“Colleagues, What a great event, firstly I would like to thank Ben (Levy) as he is the force behind this day and of course the Trafford Centre for their continued support. But it wouldn’t be the event it was without all your teams, the St John’s boys came all the way from Carlisle.”

“The next bit will sound a bit cheesy but it’s true; I was there all day and got to see the effort and enthusiasm of all our staff start to finish, from the two year vets like Mountain Rescue to the new comers with vintage police cars and a huge dive boat. I felt very privileged and proud to be part of the emergency and rescue family and realised how fortunate I am to work with you all. On an in house note all the fire service personnel where fantastic, rescue crews demonstrating listening devices and cameras to kids, Watch Manager Stredder who has discovered a career as a presenter, and everyone else the list is too long to mention everyone.”

“I Hope you will all be back for number three, We are already thinking that we can get more interactive and I think we can also step up the media coverage both on the day and in advance to increase the numbers of people we interact with. I am not sure if ESD2 was the biggest event of its kind but I am hoping that ESD3 will be the biggest and best and as was pointed out only 363 days to go. Thanks for all you did Andy Dugdale, GMFRS Borough Commander, Trafford.”