Blue light memories have been rekindled at an event that brought together decades of firefighting experience.
At a gathering in Forfar’s Strang Street station, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Chief Officer Alasdair Hay joined current and former station managers and personnel and the team from Arbroath’s Blue Watch, whose restoration talents are on permanent display in the form of a 130-year-old horse-drawn steam fire engine that once served the town.
The reunion was bittersweet as it followed the recent death of former Forfar fire chief John King, whose son Roy, the current watch manager, had hoped his father would beat illness to attend the get-together.
Mr King said: “The idea of having a reunion was spoken about and there is a lot of sadness that my dad came so close to being part of it, but I am sure he would have been very proud to see what has been done.”
A chance conversation at last year’s Arbroath Sea Fest triggered the reunion.
The line-up of Forfar station managers Alan Hay, Norman Hoy, Alan Shepherd and Roy King represented a combined retained service to the local community of well over a century and Mr Hay said their dedication was the foundation from which the success of Scotland’s single service would continue to be built.
“If we can see further into the future it’s because we stand on the shoulders of giants, and those that have gone before us are giants, so it is an absolute privilege to be part of this event,” he said.
Mr Hay, who was Tayside’s fire chief before taking up the new role when the single Scottish service came into being, also cast his eye over the immaculate Shand Mason horse-drawn steam engine once used by Forfar textile firm Don & Low before being restored in the early 1990s and given pride of place at Strang Street on permanent loan.
Alan Rae, of the Arbroath team who completed the restoration, recalled discovering the steam engine and a horse-drawn hearse tucked away in the company’s old St James work, and the pride the Angus firefighters took in painstakingly restoring the piece of history to its former glory.