Goring Fire Station 40-Year Celebration Open Day

By this time, many people had built up an appetite, and despite a few ominous clouds, families enjoyed a BBQ whilst engaging with the local firefighters. Firefighters then performed demonstrations including a ladder rescue and a road traffic collision scenario to engage and inform the public of some of the most Goring Fire Station 40-Year Celebration Open Day common incidents the fire service attend. Throughout the day, other activities were available for families to be involved in, including a beer goggle football challenge and an opportunity for children to use the firefighter hose to squirt water. Many people were also interested in finding out the history of the fire station which was displayed through a series of photographs and stories.

Fire Station history The fire station has moved around in its time in Goring from originally being under the river bridge, moving to Red Cross Road in 1935, and since 1976 it has been part of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service based at Icknield Road. So despite us celebrating 40 years of Goring Fire Station, it has actually existed since 1900. Over the years, the fire crew at Goring have attended many incidents ranging from large animal rescues to river rescues, house fires to field fires, and even the odd cat up a tree! Some of the biggest incidents have included an army lorry crash at the bottom of Streatley Hill involving three vehicles, a steam train crash in Didcot, and a fire in Streatley Mill. In more recent times, fire crews from Goring have attended a big blaze at Swinley Forest, the Didcot power station collapse and numerous flooding incidents during 2007.

Our thanks
Regardless of all the changes and developments over the years, we are still a close-knit community fire station. We hope that came across during our open day and would like to thank everyone across the village and local area who turned up and supported our event. Through everyone’s generosity, we managed to raise £200 for The Fire Fighters Charity. We would especially like to show gratitude to Mick Godfrey for his history stand, the ambulance service, PCSO Mark Bell, Didcot fire crew, our volunteers (Fiona and Nicolas Brown and Sue), and The Blue Tin farm shop, who all helped massively on the day.