Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 21st May, 2021)

Dennis the Square box building looks good and makes sense. The colours represent each station. Still congested round that area, but much better than it use to be.

I used to go to the Fire Station twice a week in the 60s when I was a member of the The Auxiliary Fire Service, the AFS was to provide mobile fire fighting columns that could be deployed to areas that had suffered a nuclear attack.
I was only a 16/17 year old but most of them were older and just like the dads army of the fire brigade, best bit for me was sliding down the pole and flying through Wigan on our green goddess fire engine when there was a call out, Newtown chippy after being on duty and going a weekend exercises to Bala lake, Monmouth and Glasgow.

Square Boxes is right Dennis. Contrast with what’s happening just down the road where characteristic and historic buildings are being torn down at Eckersley Mill.

They may be practical but they look like they've been built out of Lego by a five-year-old.

It's a fire / ambulance station and needs to be clean , efficient , no nonsense and utterly functional . It's essentially a garage and isn't meant to look like Rochdale town hall .

I went on a tour of the Fire Station about 30 years ago, one of the officers showed us how they had a facility for freezing the traffic lights and stopping all the traffic at the road Junction when the fire engines were called out. I wonder if they can still do that?

Poet, I do have to agree with your comment, I love old buildings and hate to see them demolished to make way for stark, modern, characterless ones but you are right in this case, I can see that now.

I wonder if any of the female paramedics have fallen in love with one of the firemen, and slid down the pole together.

Poet, man cannot live on function alone. Even Cavemen, who had the most functional homes you can imagine, felt the need to adorn their walls with drawings and paintings.

Glad this replaced the old 1960s fire station. It was either that or repaint the fire tenders pink to match the faded colour of the old station.

Shoe boxes, all made out of ticky tacky & all look just the same....as the song goes.
Where is the tower ? Don't firemen dry the hoses anymore ? The fire station here is modern & has a tower , made of brick & will last longer than those boxes.

Interesting photo. Do the firemen actually slide down a greasy pole these days, just wondered. I bet there was a few accidents when that happened...all tumbling down one after another.

Mick: Mucky Boy!

Helen of Troy, yes the tower was used to dry the canvas hoses and also for doing rescue from the open windows.
But I think the hoses are made from different stuff these days and don't need to dry.
The old station was three story high and the pole was one and a half with a change of pole then another one and half story pole to the ground.
I bet now with all the H&S they will come down a slide and land in a pit of ping pong balls

Helen, I once had cause to visit and whilst there was shown a tour of the building, I was told the tower was for high rise fire and ladder practice, they even had stuffed canvas dummies the same dead weight as an average child or adult, these represented unconscious people for the trainees to get accustomed to lifting and carrying out of buildings.

Shevington AFS. https://youtu.be/vDraFl_IpqM

Dennis , I remember Bedrock had a fire brigade but because the town was made of stone they were never called out .
Though I generally agree with your point ; I think in this particular case , building costs should be kept to a bare minimal with as much money as possible spent on equipment , resources and training etc .
By the way , I like your bus pictures . It's as if you've started a new art movement . Topdeckism maybe .

I was crossing the junction last week when an ambulance came out and headed for Marus Bridge - the lights went red for us - and the ambulance shot straight across the junction against the flow. They don't seem to have synched the lights very well to deal with the traffic afterwards - traffic coming off Robin Park Road was allowed to continue for too long - and traffic coming off Ormskirk/ Victoria Roads was stymied and queues built up back towards town.

This area of Wigan is a complete nightmare, both in a car or if your on foot.You risk life and limb to cross the road.I avoid it at all cost.

“Topdeckism”, I like that Poet. Brilliant!. Made me laugh that did. Does that make me a “Topdeckist” from the “Topdeck” school of “Snappers”?

They have the facility to stop all the lights to allow egress from the station on blue lights.