Children get the chance to play with firefighters

Children got a taste of what firefighters’ lives were really like during a visit to their school.

One moment, two firemen in Picture 1 were showing girls at Harlow School, Old Marston, Oxford, how to hold and target a hose.

The next, their alarm went off and they and their colleagues from the Slade fire station were heading out on an emergency call.

Rubbish and heathland had caught fire at Peat Moors, Headington, and they were needed to tackle the flames.

Read again: The Mitre pub in Oxford is now an eyesore

The fire crew were showing the 10- and 11-year-olds the equipment on their machine when they were suddenly called away. The visit had been arranged as part of a school project on survival.

Firemen’s wives were called in to look after visitors at Witney fire station’s open day in 1976 in case their menfolk were called out.

Although some of the appliances expected to be on display were needed elsewhere, there were no emergencies for the local fire crews to handle that afternoon, so everything ran smoothly.

Oxford Mail:

Jason Clarke and his three-year-old brother Jon are seen in Picture 2 cooling down on a warm day with ice creams.

One of the appliances on show was a Tiger Cub, which was used to tackle fires in Witney in the 1930s and in major cities during the Second World War.

Money raised during the open day went to the Fire Service Benevolent Fund.

Oxford Mail:

There was plenty of excitement as the children in Picture 3 tried on helmets at the Oxfordshire fire headquarters in Sterling Road, Kidlington, in 1981.

Kidlington Children’s Activities had arranged the visit for the eight- to 10-year-olds as part of a school summer holiday programme.

Helmets were also a favourite attraction at the Slade Fire Station at Headington in 2000, with Alice Jordan, six, and her three-year-old brother Jordan, from Carterton, in Picture 4, enjoying their moment of stardom.

Oxford Mail: