‘Smokey’ the Fire Engine joins the team at Garston (From Watford Observer)

‘Smokey’ the Fire Engine joins the team at Garston

3:15pm Tuesday 12th May 2009 in Community By Nick Ashman

‘Smokey’ the fire engine can be seen on the streets of Watford helping to keep local people safe. The latest addition to Garston fire station was named by Natasha Oliver from Alban Wood School.

To mark the arrival of the new fire engine, firefighters invited local school children to take part in a competition to give it a name. They were asked to colour in a picture of the engine, suggest a name for it and come up with a fire safety message.

Several local schools got involved and the station received almost 150 entries.

A competition prize giving was held at Garston Fire Station on Wednesday May 19, together with an unveiling of the newly named ‘Smokey’ fire engine at the station Overall winner and 1st prize went to Natasha Oliver of Alban Wood School and her suggestion of ‘Smokey’ now adorns the fire engine courtesy of Maurice M Spinner Sign Services. Second and third prizes went to Ellie Greenhill who attended Berrygrove Primary at the time of the competition and Dean Millard of St Pauls Church of England Primary, Langleybury, respectively. The winners received book tokens for Borders book shops Natasha suggested “Life’s too short, don’t let it go up in smoke” as an important fire safety message.

Tony Smith of Blue Watch said “This was a unique opportunity to get local children thinking about fire safety and we are astounded by the quality and number of entries. We would like to thank everyone who took part, congratulations to the winners and we are very pleased to have ‘Smokey’ on the team”.