50th anniversary of Whittlesey Fire Station

A wall mural to mark the 50th anniversary of Whittlesey Fire Station has been revealed at a surprise unveiling in front of the station’s firefighters. The mural, designed by artists Tim Shuker-Yates, 46, and Kyle Warwick, 24, from the Girton Youth Project, was commissioned for the side wall of the station as part of this year’s 50th anniversary celebrations which included a popular open day back in June.

The design, which has been done over a period of two weeks and has taken about eight hours to paint, was covered by a giant dust sheet whilst it was being completed.

Artists Tim and Kyle designed the mural to make it look as though the engine is moving by blurring around the edges to give a sense of movement. They added a banner at the top, marking the station’s 50 years in the town between 1967 and 2017. The number plate on the engine, A18 999, was personalised to Whittlesey as well – with the A18 referring to the station’s call sign.

Station Commander Giles Grainger unveiled the design to firefighters - many of whom had not seen the mural until that point - during their drill night. SC Grainger said: “I am proud that Whittlesey is the only fire station in the whole of the county to have commissioned a mural.

“The station means so much to everybody here and the community of Whittlesey which was demonstrated by the recent fantastic turnout we had for the open day in June and I hope that this mural serves as a reminder to everybody in Whittlesey of the excellent service provided by all of our boys and girls at the station.”

Whittlesey Fire Station is manned by on-call firefighters who are trained professionals who respond to emergencies in their communities alongside their day-to-day lives. They may be at home, work or out and about when they receive a pager alert calling them to an incident. There are also benefits to the employer and employee as on-call firefighters receive new skills and training which they may be able to use in their full-time jobs as well.

On-call firefighters have to be aged 18 and over, have a good level of all-round fitness and live or work within a five minute travel time of an on-call fire station.