Over 50 villagers from Maiden Newton came together to reenact how a village would have fought fires a century over 200 years ago before modern fire appliances. Villagers formed a line to haul water from the bridge over the River Frome in buckets that were then passed down a line to fill the original village hand pump (circa 1800).
The Maiden Newton Action Group held the event despite the Chief Fire Officer’s recommendation to the Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Authority, to keep 6 fire stations identified for closure open for the present, and merge two others – Hamworthy and Wilton.
Campaigners insisted they wanted to demonstrate they would keep up the pressure to ensure there was no retreat and oppose any move to revisit closures. They were also totally opposed to the mergers of Hamworthy and Wilton, which they insisted were closures under another name that would put lives at risk and lead to the loss of firefighters’ jobs.
At a short rally, one of the organisers, Carol told the crowd, “As a community I want to thank you all for turning out. This shows how hard it is to look after property if you don’t have modern firefighting equipment nearby, and how every second counts!”
Andy, from the Fire and Rescue Service Association in Maiden Newton told villagers how much the fire station crew appreciated the support from the community and how important it was to crew the service locally: “One thing we can do as a community is to recruit more fire fighters. We must demonstrate that we need the fire station open and that we can crew it locally.” Andy said it was great that three more volunteers had already come forward. “We want to provide you with the best service and you have demonstrated over these past months that is what you want too. The fight goes on!”
Harry, a fire fighter and member of the Fire Brigades Union in Maiden Newton thanked everyone for turning out and for all the efforts by local campaigners. “The decision is very positive; it is not a fully done deal, and we need to keep up the fight. While this bucket event is a symbolic gesture, the meaning behind it is very serious. We need to keep our fire appliance and look to recruit.”
Sam from the action group said “This is a fantastic village, and we have seen so many people come out. We have to start by saying it’s a victory on one level, but we have to keep the pressure on. They wanted to close eight stations from day one. But we have to continue the fight over the two ‘mergers’, which are actually closures.”
Sam went oon to stress the importance of campaigning, “One thing I want to say – campaigning can win! People don’t often think you can fight, but if you get together, like here, Charmouth and other places, you can win. Without that campaign I don’t think they would have come to this decision.”
On 30 June there will be a minibus from the village to a rally of firefighters and campaigners to lobby the Fire Authority who are meeting at the Salisbury HQ to decide on the Chief Fire Officer’s recommendations.
