Croydon Fire Station throws open the big red doors for first Brigade ‘SEN’ Open Day

Croydon Fire Station hosted its first ever ‘Special Education Needs’ (SEN) family open day last weekend with 700 children and their families attending.

The brainchild behind the event was Station Officer Daniel Foster from Croydon Fire Station’s Blue Watch. After seeing how his own daughter, who is autistic, struggled to enjoy Open Days at her father’s workplace, Daniel decided to create a bespoke event which was adapted to be accessible to those with autism, a learning disability or sensory sensitivity. The day was free entry but raised funds for Certitude charitable projects.

The special open day included:

• Ramp access to the cab of a fire engine so that those in a wheelchair could peek inside
• A hose connected to a hydrant to give children with sensory needs an opportunity to squirt water - rather than from a hose connected to a running fire engine.
• A specially adapted zip wire to allow children to either go straight up and look around - or for the more adventurous, to fly down the zip line.
• A Breathing Apparatus chamber normally used for training purposes was converted into a ‘sensory’ room with lights and a projection of a fire on the wall for the attendees to locate.
• Quiet areas in the fire station yard for those who need space and suffer from sensory overload featuring lights, wind chimes, fragrant plants, hanging paper flowers, bubbles and a bubbling water feature.

Station Officer Daniel Foster said it was a very successful day: “This day has taken months of planning and something I’ve aspired to do ever since I first invited my daughter to come visit my workplace. She found the usual open days hosted on station extremely overwhelming so I knew that children like her could really benefit from something specially designed for their needs.

“I want to pay tribute to my whole Watch who really got behind the project. It was really great to be able to support Certitude while helping our local community who rarely see these type of opportunities that are organised for them.

“We were blessed with blue skies and sunshine. Some families came to the Open Day we hosted at Croydon fire station the weekend before, but they found it too overwhelming. It was a huge compliment when the same people came to our SEN Open Day and stayed from the start to the very finish. It was hard work but the most rewarding and worthwhile thing I’ve ever worked on in my 22-year career as a firefighter in the borough.”

London Fire Brigade’s Education Team Manager, Judith Oram attended the day with Education Officers Brendan and Nassim to give fire and road safety advice to families. She said: “The amount of work that Blue Watch did for this event was extraordinary. Daniel was the driving force, he created a fantastic calm safe space for neurodiverse children to attend and enjoy. Parents were amazed at how many activities the children were able to try and were so thankful that the firefighters had catered for their neurodiverse children. They even had an ice cream van run by a retired firefighter. And Hugo the well-being dog and his handler Sarah were also there to greet families at the gate on arrival. Everyone was smiling!”

The day was such a success Daniel and his team are hoping to make it an annual event and plans are already underway for the next one to run in summer 2025.

For more information about all the Brigade’s fire station open days, visit: www.london-fire.gov.uk/community/fire-station-open-days.