This week, the Cornish Times is taking an in-depth look at the district’s community firestations - and the work of the dedicated crew members helping to keep us all safe.

Today we head to Liskeard, where firefighters attend around 150 call-outs a year, ranging from fires and floods to animal rescues.

Our full eight-page feature on South East Cornwall’s firestations is in the current edition of the Cornish Times.

There has been a fire station in Liskeard for over 100 years, and over the decades it has been crewed by local people from all walks of life.

The current fire station is located on Greenbank Road, next to the police and ambulance stations, and is still crewed by local people. Numbers are very low though, and the station urgently wants to recruit new firefighters.

Firefighters never know when they are going to get a call, so the current crew have to make sure at least five of them are available 24/7, 365 days a year to ensure they can respond as quickly as they can with a competent crew.

To be a firefighter it doesn’t matter what you currently do in your work or life, as long as you are fit and able, can provide the minimum cover and can get to the fire station in five minutes when there is a call.

The current crew is made up of a diverse mix of people ranging from council employees, a cobbler, a postal worker, a builder, IT experts, a taxi driver, a school caretaker, an H&S lecturer, local businessmen, an emergency care assistant and a Tri-Service officer.

On average, on-call firefighters are needed in Liskeard 13 times a month – with eight day-time calls between 7am and 7pm, three evening calls between 7pm and midnight, and two night-time calls between midnight and 7am, with the average length of a call-out being 45 minutes.

As well as being at times a very challenging job, being a firefighter is also very interesting and rewar- ding, so if you are interested in helping out your community and becoming an on-call firefighter at Liskeard Community Fire Station, call Fire Careers on 01872 327999.

Alternatively, you can call into the station on a Thursday evening when the members of the crew do their training between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.