Aldridge Fire Station Open Day - WMFS 50th Anniversary 2024

Went to Aldridge Fire Station again yesterday, 24.08.2024, for not just their open day but also for the celebration of the West Midlands Fire Service's 50th Anniversary. It was another horrible wet day when i arrived there at 9:10 (09:10) in the morning. I've been there last year and strangely enough the weather was the same as yesterday. Some staff were preparing the barriers for the day and one of them has even ask me to go into the station to get out of the wet, so that was nice of him. He's one of the Facilities Management team. So i went in and took some photos of their Rescue Pump and their B.A. sets before they went away to do some training at 9:58am (09:58), which is odd for me, go to training on their Open Day. But then again, it's their routine, so they had to be ready for anything, even on open days. Fire Dog Team were also there with Giddy the Fire Investigation Dog. Willenhall crew were also arrived at 10:39am (10:39) to support the station's open day while the Aldridge crew are out training. Their Watch Manager/Commander has kindly offered me to take some photos of their appliance and even got Matt, one of his crew took some photos of me in the crew cab. So after he took the photos of me in the crew cab, i took some photos of their appliance as well as the inside of the crew cab. Armed police were also there. Aldridge station has a firefighters charity stand, cakes stand, food trailer, merry-go round and a recruitment stand. Aldridge is also home to their Fire Cadets. While i was there, i met up with Sam Bridges, one of our group members and a fellow TH-camr and later on met another enthusiast who is also a cadet from Birmingham named Will who i've seen dozen of times on the station open day visits. and had a good chat with them. Technical Rescue Team from Sutton Coldfield also showed up with their rescue boat at 11:14am (11:14) and had a good chat with them. They got activities like toss a rescue line at the person in water stand, target practice with a jet and shooting down fires with the old hand-pumps. Done some pan rounds of the site and the inside of the station bay. A commander's car was also there, belonging to either the Group Commander, Area Commander or the Brigade Manager. Aldridge crew arrived back from training at 1:25pm (13:25) and the ice cream van has also turned up at the same time. But no sooner the Aldridge crew arrived, they got a call-out and Willenhall took it at 1:28pm (13:28) on blues and sirens. Aldridge RP took the spot where Willenhall was and restarting the appliance tour at 1:35 (13:35). But then another call-out at the station to a 6 pump terrace building, but Aldridge just been out training and had to stood down with no B.A.s and have their P.P.E. kits cleaned. At 1:44pm (13:44), Sutton Coldfield's TRT has left without blues and sirens on. Then the Fire Dog Team left at 2am (14:00). There was only two demos out of three, the first one was to be the first RTC demo, then it's the cadets demo, using the jets and a fire dummy stand and third is a second RTC. But it's the cadets and the second RTC that is done because of the weather and the call-outs. I didn't record the cadets' demo due to talking to Sam and Will, but i've managed to get the RTC demo at 3:16pm (15:16). Despite all that has happened at Aldridge, it's still a very good day and the Facilities management staff has gave me seven WMFS 50th Anniversary badges. Thanks you all for the badges, good chats and for a great day. 👍🏻🔥🚒