Village fire crew have mountain to climb in epic charity hose challenge

Some of the Billingborough fire crew getting ready for their charity hose run out on Saturday. EMN-210909-165024001

The seven strong team at Billingborough fire station, along with the support of one or two officers, are planning to roll out, make up and then roll up again their 25-metre long hoses continuously until it adds up to the same distance as the height of Mt Everest.

The 70mm hoses weigh 12-15kg each and the firefighters will need to roll out the length of 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 aim to start at 10am on Saturday (September 11) and expect to be there for most of the day.

“Normally you get one person on a hose rolling it out but we will have four or five hoses rolling out at a time to speed things up.

“The other side of the coin is that for every one length of 25 metre hose we will need to run 100 metres so the challenge also consists of running a total of 21 miles in fire kit too.

“We are looking at doing four firefighters at a time and running in a relay.”

Emma said: “We are expecting to have aching arms and legs and half broken by the end. But we will remain on call during the event and if there is a call out, a crew will go out in the appliance and the rest of us will carry on.”

The idea was the brainchild of firefighter Peter Vince and they plan to video record the whole effort with a view to hopefully setting a new world record - as they do not believe it has been done before.

They hope to raise at least £500 to be shared between the Firefighters Charity, which supports injured fire crews, and LIVES which runs a countywide network of volunteer first responders trained to deal with cardiac arrests in their local area. LIVES provides volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics who provide their advanced skills to complex medical and trauma emergencies.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue work closely with LIVES and at least two Billingborough crew members serve as responders too.

They hope to collect more donations on the day and intend to make it a community event with a barbecue, music and whip up as much support as they can.

Emma particularly wanted to thank E V Prints of Sleaford after Phil, the owner donated the specially branded T-shirts they will wear on the day. “They are fantastic - we cannot thank him enough,” Emma said.

You can donate via their Justgiving web page.