By Casey Neill
Keysborough firefighters welcomed about 800 people to their fire station’s open day.
Keysborough Fire Brigade captain Paul Townsend said the attendance on Sunday 15 October topped last year’s 600 people.
“It’s pretty hard to gauge, but we were flat out from 10am right through until about 2pm,” he said.
“Anything less than we’d done the previous year would have been a letdown for us.”
The event at the Chapel Road station featured an agility course for kids, a smoke house to simulate a fire environment, face painting, and more.
“The idea of the day was to open up the doors and let people come through and see what we’ve got,” Capt Townsend said.
“Kids love fire engines and that sort of stuff.
“It’s two-fold. One, to let the kids have some fun with the fire engine and learning about crawling low in smoke.
“The other intention is to have all the parents here to talk to them about volunteering.”
He received just over a dozen expressions of interest in joining the crew.
Capt Townsend said his team educated adults as well as children, through a smoke alarm information stand and fire awareness messages ahead of summer.
“It was fantastic to see the amount of people here and just seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces,” he said.
He said his crew enjoyed the day and thanked the community for taking part.
