Peterborough children greet Princess Royal at opening of new Cambridgeshire Fire Service training centre

Two Peterborough children greeted the Princess Royal at the official opening of the new Huntingdon Fire Station and Service Training Centre.

The princess met Benjamin Pekeja and Howard-Junior Miller-Ormsby, students at Queen Katharine Academy in Peterborough, and spoke about the Fire Break programme they have recently completed with the CFRS community safety team.

The pair said: “It felt very special to meet Her Royal Highness and talk about the FireBreak programme. She asked us what the best part was and we said wearing breathing apparatus and carrying out the rescue mission. We told her it has inspired us to become firefighters. It was a day we’ll remember forever.”

The Princess Royal was greeted at the centre by the Lord Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, Julie Spence OBE QPM, and introduced to Fire Authority Chair Edna Murphy, Deputy Chief Executive for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) Matthew Warren and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jon Anderson, among other civic representatives, before commencing a tour of the new fire station and CFRS’s training centre which is on the same site.

Along the way, The Princess Royal was treated to three demonstrations by firefighters and training centre instructors showing rope rescue, road traffic collision and large animal rescue techniques. This included a horse rescue from a water filled ditch to replicate the unique challenges Cambridgeshire firefighters face with the large number of waterways in the county.

After the tour - which also included meeting on-call firefighters, the community safety team, representatives from support groups and year 10 students who have designed a piece of artwork for one of the conference rooms – CFRS Deputy Chief Executive Matthew Warren officially welcomed everyone and thanked all those involved in the build project for their hard work and perseverance, before inviting Her Royal Highness to unveil a commemorative plaque. As she did so, The Princess Royal expressed how much she had enjoyed her tour and meeting everyone involved.