Establishment 2000

<Photo> Watch Manager Gordon Blain, right, closes the door for the final time with fellow-firefighters, Steve Callow and Sandy Fairbairn.
There were tears and a lump in the throat as Melrose Fire Station was consigned to the history books recently. Gordon Blain, Watch Manager, pulled down the door for the last time. And, after more than 28 years as a retained firefighter, he admitted that he was gutted. Lothian & Borders Fire Board agreed in March of last year to close the station as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Two of the remaining six crew, David Brown and Neil Redhead, are transferring to Galashiels while the others handed back their fire suits and bleepers to the Brigade. “I will miss it,” said Gordon. “It has been a huge part of my life for many years. You give up so much, but my family will be able to see more of me now. “It is very sad. I will miss the training nights, the exercises and so on. I took my bleeper with me everywhere, even to Benidorm on holiday. “It was just one thing you did and put it in your pocket.” Gordon, a self-employed joiner, thanked the Border Telegraph for supporting the campaign to save the station. “You gave us great support,” said firefighter Sandy Fairbairn, who will now go back to full-time to running the Spar shop in Melrose. And, pointing to the ‘Save Our Fire Station’ banner added: “We will need to change it to ‘closed’.” Local councillor Nicholas Watson, said: “It is tragic that the enormous work made by the volunteers is not recognised. “I just wonder if the Fire Brigade properly considered the expansion of housing that the Borders is expecting in the next few years. “The roads are also getting busier and it is becoming more difficult for the fire service to get to incidents quickly.” Councillor Watson is writing to the Brigade to ask members not to dispose of the building yet to see how ‘things pan out in the future.’ There has been a fire station in Melrose for over 150 years and the current station opened in 1981. A campaign to save the station was orchestrated in the town, and the Telegraph ran it own campaign – but to no avail. “Now we have only the memories,” added Gordon.
(Border Telegraph Newsroom, Wednesday, August 29, 2007.)

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