AS PART of The Gazette nostalgia page launched this week, we investigated the similarities and differences of emergency service reports over the decades.

In the Gazette in April 1985, there was a report on the fire service’s efforts to find new recruits – something which is still a familiar sight in the newspaper today.


On April 12, 1985, Thornbury firemen demonstrated some of their skills to the Gazette as part of their bid to find new colleagues.


Both the crews at Yate and Thornbury stations were looking for recruits to help respond to ‘shouts’.


And they revealed that a third of their call outs were for car crashes, another third were for domestic fires, with the rest dominated by false alarms and rescue missions.