Going out in a blaze of glory – sheltered housing complex gets exciting new lease of life.

Blackwood Blog

Meet the part time fire fighters being put through their paces in a new training facility

WHAT do you do with an old sheltered housing complex when it’s worn out and past its best?

Care and housing specialist Blackwood is making sure one of its ageing buildings goes out in a blaze of glory … as a training centre for fire fighters.

Now part-time firemen who provide the retained fire service for Peebles and area – are learning lifesaving skills in the rooms and corridors of empty Tweedbridge Court.

The move has seen the building used for simulated rescues while the part time crews also get vital experience in using high powered hoses, which bosses say is vital to prepare the volunteers for genuine emergencies.

Lifesaving Skills

Care specialist turn home into training ground for firemen

Tweedbridge Court in Peebles, is scheduled for demolition along with the local junk removal, allowing for the site to be reinvented. However that work is still many months off.

Blackwood, which operates Scotland-wide, helps address the care and housing needs of people with disabilities, sensory impairments and age-related mobility problems.

It has spent several years sourcing and preparing alternative accommodation for the 38 former residents of Tweedbridge Court, who have now all been moved into alternative homes.

Since Blackwood, which has its HQ in Edinburgh, is always looking for ways to demonstrate corporate social responsibility if decided to offer the vacant building to the Scottish Fire Service for training purposes.PR video of firefighters training in Blackwood care home

It means a major training opportunity for the retained volunteers, who provide essential cover for the Peebles area, while also holding down full times jobs. The volunteers include joiners and electricians.

For almost two years the team at Holyrood PR has been helping Blackwood to tell its stories to a wider audience, celebrating its work first started in the 1970s by disability rights campaigner, Margaret Blackwood.

When we learned about Tweedbridge Court’s exciting new lease of life as a training centre for fire fighters we decided to help tell the story in video. We hope you enjoy the results.

Got the spark of a good story? Let Holyrood PR in Edinburgh fan the flames and tell your tale to the widest possible audience.

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