In Pictures: Maidenhead Fire Station car wash raises £1,500

Maidenhead Fire Station was filled with cars and awash with soap suds when it was temporarily used as a car wash on Saturday.

Firefighters and volunteers equipped with sponges and hoses cleaned more than 200 cars at the Bridge Road station between 10am and 4pm.

The event raised £1,500 to be shared between the Fire Fighters Charity, which supports past and present members of the UK’s fire services, and the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.

Amy Crook, fire safety inspection officer (East Hub), organised the event, she said:  “It was a steady footfall of cars, we had two lanes open and it didn’t stop until about three o’clock and then it calmed down a little bit.”

She added: “The hard work that everyone put in and working together as a team was brilliant.”

The suggested donation for the service was £5 but people gave much more.

Amy said: “We were getting normally £10 or £20, one lady gave us £60 because we attended an oven fire at her house in the week.

“She said she was so impressed with the way the fire fighters conducted themselves.”

Although the station was doubling-up as a car wash it was business as usual for the firefighters.

“They had a lot of shouts,” said Amy. “We had a Windsor appliance there and Maidenhead, and twice in that day both of them were sent out at the same time – so we had to rely on volunteers to clean the cars and we had to shut a lane down because it was so busy.”

On October 14, Maidenhead Fire Station’s blue watch will cycle 200 kilometres in a ‘Remembrance Ride for the Fallen’.

They will cycle to Ypres, Belgium, where they will take part in The Last Post Ceremony and lay a wreath at The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.

The money they raise will be shared between the Fire Fighters Charity and the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.

To make a donation go to www.justgiving.com/teams/200kforthefallen