Making A Splash At The Salisbury Fire Station Open Day
September 14th, 2023
Brewers Salisbury were delighted to be able to support their local fire station’s open day with a donation of Sadolin Superdec and brushes for some fun activities for the kids! We got in touch with Salisbury Firefighter, Sam, to find out more about the open day and why it’s so important for the local community.
Why does Salisbury fire station hold an open day every year?
The reason we hold our fire station open day every year is to engage with our local community. The Open Day gives us a chance to meet with members of the public who we would not necessarily get a chance to speak with unless they need our help. It also gives us a chance to show children around our fire appliances, and for them to learn about the work we do as well as fire safety in a fun environment. It's not just the younger members of the community, we also get a chance to speak with adults about fire safety at home and it gives them a chance to speak to us about any fire safety concerns they may have at home or with someone they know.
We also bring together other emergency services such as the police and ambulance service at one single event. This means that the members of the public can meet and learn about the work of all the emergency services, not just the fire and rescue service.
How many people attended the event?
Last year was the first Open Day that Salisbury has had in over 10 years, and as it was our first year, we had around 1500 attend. This year however, we had over 4000 people attend over the 6-hour period. This was a great success, and we now hope to continue to grow the Open Day year on year.
What was the Sadolin Superdec used for?
This year we wanted to build something that the children could squirt water at, as well as being engaging. Last year we had some small targets, but we knew this year we needed to build something much bigger and better!
So, we set about building two wooden fire houses with hinged wooden flames in the windows. Once the water was sprayed at the wooden flames it would fall backwards to simulate that the fire had been put out. The reason we built two wooden fire houses was because we knew how popular the fire hoses were last year, so to prevent children having to wait a long time for their turn, we would have two of them.
How much money did the open day raise?
We raised a fantastic £2500 for our Firefighters Charity, which is a cause close to our hearts. It not only supports serving and retired firefighters, but the families of firefighters as well.
What did it mean to the station for a company like Brewers to support the event?
Quite simply without the kind donation of paint by Brewers we would not have been able to build our wooden fire houses.
On the day theses were incredibly popular and without them, the event would not have been nearly as engaging. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing children go away from an event with big smiles on their faces. It makes all the hard work we put in worthwhile!
The high-quality paint from Brewers means that the wooden fire houses will go on to be used at our Open Days for many years to come!