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November 26, 2004
Scenes of past service
On my recent trip to SA we visited Bloemfontein - the city in which my son was born - and the photo below is of the Station in which my office was located. Our house was next door.
The Ehrlich Park Fire Station in the City of Bloemfontein.
The station now houses, in the former Ambulance garages and accomodation, the museum collection of appliances and equipment. It is still very much an operational station protecting the main industrial areas of the city. Its "protected" area has been reduced since the 1980's by the provision of two new stations in the residential areas beyond the industrial estate.
For both my son and me this was something of a spiritual journey - for him to see where his early childhood was spent and for me to see how my former Brigade - one I am proud to say I had a major hand in modernising and reorganising - had faired. I was very pleasantly surprised both by the welcome I received and by the fact that so much of what I had planned and put in place had stood the test of time and of the lean years of funding that seem now to be (thankfully) coming to an end.
The house next to the station - the shrubs were much smaller when we planted them 23 years ago!
Much has changed in the last 23 years - most of it for the better!
Posted by The Gray Monk at November 26, 2004 10:26 AM
Comments
Sometime is so good to come back to your roots!
Posted by: Adriana at November 30, 2004 07:30 AM