Firemen raise money for families

27 April 2010, 11:45 | Updated: 13 September 2017, 18:39

10 Wiltshire firefighters are walking from Swindon to Southampton, after their night shift, on Wednesday morning to raise money for the families of 2 firemen who lost their lives in a fire in a black of flats.

35 year old James Shears and 38 year old Alan Bannon died on 6th April while tackling a fire in the 15-storey Shirley Towers in Southampton. 

The Swindon firefighters will set off at about 9:30am on Wednesday from Drove Road fire station and cross country to the Hants border and then walk on main roads to Southampton.  They'll be wearing full fire service uniform and hope they'll ahve a fire engine with them for some of the route.  They will be walking through the night and expect it to take them around 24 hours.

Shaun Dunham, one of the walk organisers, explained: "The fire and rescue service is one big family, so it hits hard when two of our own are lost. We want to show our support to our colleagues in Hampshire, and we also want to give some practical help to the two families involved. We've asked every fire station in Wiltshire to raise money, and we've been getting sponsorship as well, so we are hopeful of a really good amount being achieved."

Anyone wishing to make a donation can drop into their local fire station - cheques should be made payable to the 'James Shears and Alan Bannon Memorial Fund'.