being a retained FireFighter in Suffolk
End of an era…
At 10am this morning Lowestoft South Fire Station became operational.
It will seem strange for me not to see all the pumps and specials waiting behind the closed appliance bay doors as I pass the fire station.
The existing Normanshurst Fire Station had been serving Lowestoft for 37 years and before that the station was based at the old house that stood just behind the mess room. I can remember visiting the station on what was probably its very first open day and sitting in the drivers seat of a fire engine. Never did I imagine that some 30 years later I would be driving one of those things for real!
And soon the builders will be moving to this side of the river to start on building the new Normanshurst. Except it won’t be Normanshurst, more likely we’ll be known as North Lowestoft.
It will be a single bay fire station and is designed to serve North Lowestoft for the next 30 odd years. I’ll not get into arguments now as to whether it should have been designed with two bays or any of the other things that will get me into trouble.
I’m just looking forward to seeing the new station being built and moving in sometime in the Summer of 2010.
And for now Normanshurst must be the largest single pump fire station in the UK!
– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)
