Record-breaking Billingborough firefighters roll out their hoses for charities

The county’s firefighters held a minute’s silence at 1.46pm in memory of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and the families and friends of the 3,000 people who lost their lives, including 343 firefighters.

They then launched into staging charity car washes, but the seven-strong retained crew at Billingborough, who serve as firefighters as well as having ‘day jobs’, came up with a new challenge to raise funds for the Firefighters Charity and LIVES, as two of the crew are also first responders who rush to deliver first aid in the event in their local community.

With the support of one or two officers, they aimed to roll out, make up and then roll up again their 25-metre long hoses continuously until it added up to the same distance as the height of Mt Everest.

The 70mm hoses weigh 12-15kg each and the firefighters needed to roll out the hose 354 times to add up to the 8,848 metres to the top of the world’s highest peak.

Crew manager Emma Schofield said: “We completed our challenge in a brilliant time of two hours and one minute, our firefighter Peter Vince also set a new record which will also be sent into the Guinness book of world records, he completed 41 hoses in one hour which is brilliant, he worked so hard.”

It was back-aching work, with the crew having to walk bent double to roll out the hoses. The challenge also involved covering 21 miles in fire kit, with four firefighters running at a time in a relay – while still being on call if needed.

She thanked everyone who donated, having raised over £500 so far and E V Prints of Sleaford after they donated specially branded T-shirts to wear on the day.