Firefighters at Huntingdon held a closing ceremony to mark 57 years of Huntingdon fire station on Hartford Road ahead of a move to Percy Road.
Colleagues past and present who have served at Huntingdon came together to celebrate the station, share memories, and say goodbye to the building, which has been home to Huntingdon fire station for over 50 years.
Over 150 people attended the event, accumulating in around 2400 years’ service combined.
There were many memories shared of the station and incidents attended by crews there over the last few decades. Fire engines were also on display along with old firefighting equipment, photos, and memorabilia.
The station will be moving to its new location on Percy Road, north of Huntingdon in January 2023.
The new site will be home to a modern, purpose-built training centre and new community fire station at St John’s Park.
It provides a significant upgrade for the wholetime and on-call operational staff, as well as support staff from Occupational Health, Health and Safety and Operational Support Group. We look forward to sharing updates from the new station soon!
Building work has commenced on the new training facility and fire station in Huntingdon.
The ground was broken on the multi-million-pound project in October, which involves building a modern, purpose-built training centre and new community fire station at St John’s Park, north of Huntingdon.
Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland said: “This is a very important and exciting milestone for this project.
“It signals that our staff will soon be benefitting from a top notch, state-of-the-art training facility where they can hone and develop their skills and techniques.
“Also, the staff at Huntingdon Fire Station will have a new modern station to base themselves and respond from.”
He said: “We have been looking to improve the training facilities that we offer to staff for a number of years, as the current provision is not to the standard we want.
“Much of our training currently takes place out of the county, adding extra time and expense. This new facility will ensure we can offer our staff the best possible training without having to travel miles for it.”
The training facility will offer effective, dependable, and realistic training for all operational staff, as well as giving much needed capacity to enable the service to train more firefighters more often than the current site allows.
The new fire station will replace the current station on Hartford Road, providing a significant upgrade for the wholetime and on-call operational staff, as well as support staff from Occupational Health, Health and Safety and Operational Support Group.
The building work is anticipated to take around a year to complete, with the station hopefully being occupied by staff by early 2023.
The budget for the project is just over £10.5 million.
