Polmadie Fire Station celebrates 30 years of bravery and rescues

For the fire station, based in Glasgow’s South Side, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a big bash.

The station, which first opened its doors at Polmadie on July 30, 1986, will host an open day for the public from 11am to 4pm to share their story with the community.

And their story is one worth knowing with Polmadie firefighters lending their skills to some of the city’s major incidents over the years including the Clutha helicopter crash in 2013.

Station manager John McKenna, Retired firefighter Alex Miller and Firefighter Ken Ross. 

John McKenna, who has been station manager over a year, said: “Polmadie is a special station. It’s different from most stations because it has so many specialist resources and skills that a lot of other stations don’t have.

“It covers the most diverse community in the whole of Scotland. Govanhill is a tremendously diverse community that you won’t find anywhere else in the country.

“The guys here are proud and privileged to serve that community as they go about their day to day lives.”

He added: “Polmadie has one of the most skilled and dedicated crews that you would ever come across anywhere in the country and I don’t just mean Scotland, I mean the whole UK.

“This is one of those stations that you look to for a broader skillset in a firefighter.”

Polmadie was previously a school before it was made into the fire station it is today. It replaced the South and Queen Park stations.

And the first firefighters at the station dubbed it ‘the big ship’ due to the porthole styled windows on Polmadie’s building.

Firefighter Ken Ross at the start of his career...

One of the guys who has been there for a good chunk of Polmadie’s history is firefighter Ken Ross.

Having spent 28 years at the station, firefighter Ross has those specialist skills Polmadie is renown for including river boat rescue.

He said: “You’ve got to keep your skills up and constantly train. We are going fires, road crashes and then there is all the other stuff we do.

“We are always busy, it’s like Argyle Street in here. We are not a quiet station.

“Even when we don’t get fire calls this place is busy. There is always something to do.”

Firefighter Ken Ross now.

And sometimes that something to do can present the firefighters with more unusual challenges.

Firefighter Ross explained that a young mother knocked on the door of the fire station in some distress.

Her son was stuck in a metal mop bucket in the seated position and was carried into the station by handle.

The youngster panicked when he saw the cutting equipment but the firefighters manage to distract him with sweeties to free him.

Firefighter Ross said: “There is always something to surprise you. You never know what you are going to do when you come to work day-to-day.

“You can go to all sorts of things because we have those extra skills.”

Retired firefighter is pictured centre when he was in service at Polmadie.

Retired firefighter Alex Miller was at Polmadie from the start until 2010 and he spoke of how the station really integrated itself into the community.

He said: “When we came here, we quickly started interacting with the community which we didn’t do at the old station.

“We started Christmas parties for underprivileged kids and then we started running charity dances.

“It was great being part of the community plus the general fire calls and diversity of incidents you got, you were never bored at this station.”

Retired firefighter Alex Miller now.

He added: “It’s a close knit family. Even when you retire, you don’t just disappear. When you join the service you never really leave it.”

Saturday’s event will show the public what Polmadie does best with live demonstrations featuring a chip pan fire and road accident rescue.

Other agencies will also be attending and there will be variety of activities for all the family.

The open day runs from 11am to 4pm on Saturday and everyone is welcome to attend.