An open day will be held on August 21 for people to view Minsterley fire station after an upgrade.
Firefighters will be on hand to show the public how they train, their equipment and give a tour through the newly refurbished station.
An eye opening chip pan blaze will be recreated to show the dangers of not using thermostatically controlled pans. Firefighters are still called out to kitchen fires from old fashioned open chip pans caused by people who fall asleep while cooking.
More retained firefighters are still needed to join the close knit team at Minsterley – all local men and women of all ages who live just five minutes away from the fire station.
They work in normal daytime jobs and train regularly ready to attend emergency call outs including fires in homes and business premises and road traffic collisions.
“We want to show the people of Minsterley their local fire station and to meet their firefighters who do a tremendous job,” said retained support officer Mel Kapitanec.
“They are all retained firefighters who give up their time to protect their community. They are all highly skilled firefighters.”
A re-dedication ceremony will be held at the Station Road venue during the open day between midday and 4pm.
The public will be given a tour of the new training room, office, kitchen, washroom and garage containing an off road vehicle now based at Minsterley.
The Shropshire village has just ten retained firefighters who turn out to an average of 130 emergency calls a year in and around Minsterley and as far afield as Berriew and they also act as a back up crew for Shrewsbury – where more retained firefighters are also needed.
Minsterley firefighters Russell Goodwin and Shaun Groves
Russell Goodwin (45), a retained firefighter for the past four years, is a construction site manager at S.J.Roberts. While Shaun Groves (39), a retained firefighter for 18 years, is a self employed builder who renovates barn conversions and is a general builder.
“Being a firefighter is an important job and we both really enjoy it,” said Shaun, who is part of the firefighting team at Minsterley.
