September 10, 2021 9.46 am This story is over 29 months old

Lincolnshire firefighters aiming for Guinness World Records with charity challenge

Good luck guys!

Firefighters from Billingborough and the surrounding villages will take part in a fundraising challenge this weekend in a bid to earn two Guinness World Records.

Billingborough is an on-call retained fire station so all its firefighters have other full-time jobs, including Peter Vince who is a registered care manager in Lincoln. He will be among the firefighters taking part in the charity challenge at Billingborough Fire Station from 10am on Saturday, September 11 – the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

The challenge will consist of running out lengths of 70mm hose (25 metres long) and rolling it up again. This will be the equivalent length of the height of Mount Everest – 8,849 metres, so 354 lengths of the 25 metre hose.

Peter Vince, who has been a firefighter at Billingborough Fire Station for four years, told The Lincolnite: “This will bring injured firefighters to the forefront of everyone’s minds again on this date, who will also be in our thoughts as we complete the charity challenge.

“We feel a bit nervous about the challenge, but we’ve all trained together and are also well up for it and excited.

“We would also like to say a big thank you to Phil at EV Prints Sleaford, who has kindly donated our printed t-shirts for the challenge.”

Among those taking part in the challenge with Peter are Harvey Chessum, Jonothan Overton, Emma Schofield, Michael Foster, Danny Hill and Dave Burns, as well as Dan Moss who is principal officer at Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue and a former retained firefighter at Billingborough.

Initially they were all going to complete the challenge in full kit, with four at a time taking part in the relay style event. However, due to health and safety and the recent warm weather, it has been advised to dress in just some of the fire kit.

The firefighters taking part have already applied to Guinness regarding the two records. After Saturday, they will submit footage to Guinness to be reviewed and then have to wait at least 12 weeks to get the result.

The two records are a speed challenge of how many lengths of hose can be rolled out and back up in an hour. This would be a new record attempt, but there is a benchmark set of 35.

The other record relates to rolling out hose lengths to the height of Mount Everest, which if completed would be a new record depending on verification from Guinness World Records.

All proceeds will be split evenly between The Fire Fighters Charity and LIVES.

The Firefighters Charity offer specialist, lifelong support for members of the UK fire services community. LIVES has a dedicated team of volunteers trained in life saving skills to respond to calls in their community.

Donate to the firefighters’ fundraiser here