Become a firefighter in Prees – that is the call to men and women in the area from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The brigade is asking company bosses to encourage staff to become firefighters – and allow new recruits a small amount of time off to respond to emergency calls.
Retained firefighters from the village fire station attended just 17 incidents during the normal five day working week over the past year. They also attended calls out of hours.
"Many firefighters left work for, on average, 70 minutes to deal with each call. We are asking Prees employers to encourage staff to join the brigade and ensure the town's fire appliance is always available for the benefit of local businesses and the whole community," said Mike Beach, a Retained Support Officer.
If there are not enough firefighters to operate the fire appliance, it will be taken off the run with colleagues from neighbouring Whitchurch and Wem forced to travel the extra miles to cover emergencies in the Prees area.
"It is a challenging and unpredictable job but extremely rewarding to serve your own community in this way. We need people who can respond to incidents weekdays during working hours which is the period when we have most difficulty in manning the appliance," said Mr Beach.
Recruits must live or work within five minutes of Prees fire station.
For an application form contact Mike Beach on 07816 293019 or Tony Talbot on 07816 293413, call Shrewsbury HQ on 01743 260200 or call into Prees fire station during the weekly training session on Thursday between 7pm and 9pm.
Potential recruits and visitors are also invited to attend an open day at Prees fire station on Saturday, August 30 from 11am to 3pm. The event includes a re-dedication ceremony to celebrate the building's refurbishment performed by former officer in charge Mr Bill Ashley at 1pm.
Specialist vehicles stationed at Prees including the high volume pumping unit used in Yorkshire and Gloucestershire during last year's floods and the mass decontamination re-robe unit will be on display at the open day attended by Assistant Chief Fire Officer Steve Worrall.
