Written by: Roger / Dave | Thursday, 20th March 2025 - 10:00
Category: Events | Tags: visit
Another sunny morning for the second group visit to the nearly new Horsham Fire Station at Platinum House. Some 19 members of Arun Forest Probus were welcomed by Watch Commander Gavin McCourty, who was part of the original strategy team setting up the new station but is currently based at Worthing. An overview accompanied by coffee was an appreciated start, before we set off to tour the complete site.
The facility is much more than ‘just a fire station’ – it is a training centre & a commercial hub, used for many external meetings, such as First Aid training, Speed Awareness, and a range of other courses, other than its core purpose. West Sussex firefighters (not just men anymore) backed up by state-of-the-art technology, have the necessary skills to ensure that residents can be reassured of their safety for the foreseeable future.
The ’domestic’ facilities for the shifts, specifically the night shift, are purpose designed to enable the rapid response required in the event of a fire call out. The rapid deployment being aided by its proximity to the A24, which is signal controlled. Everyone paid attention to Gavin’s explanations of the workings of the engines, over & above just water& foam, including the special items required for fire, RTA (road traffic accident) or other demands, such as the onboard First Aid Kit, a defibrillator, and thermal imaging equipment.
Everyone was impressed with the dynamics of the site, and whilst there was no call out to see the firefighters slide down the pole (there isn’t one anyway), we did see a training exercise of cutting up a car – presumed to be a scrapped vehicle -we had parked in the correct places!. A visit to the simulator room and a demonstration of a computer generated ‘incident’ used for training, was a fitting conclusion to our visit. A very worthwhile visit -thanks to the members of the station who gave up their time to accommodate us, and of course to Paul for arranging both trips.
