Fire station team up with local church to offer warm space for residents

A fire station and a parish church in Lichfield have come together to create a warm space for local residents as winter approaches.

Lichfield Community Fire Station and St Michael’s Church have teamed up to offer the local community a warm space, named Place of Welcome, starting from Thursday 10 November.

The drop-in sessions will take place once a week every Thursday between 1.30pm and 3pm up until the end of March 2023.

With energy bills rising, firefighters from Lichfield are also working with the church to provide ‘Winter Warm’ packs to help keep local communities warm this winter.

Station Manager Leigh Richards said: “Providing a warm space for the local community to come and enjoy companionship, conversation and hot drinks at this time is the right thing to do for our communities.

“As a service, we have a number of ongoing initiatives to help support families to keep warm this winter. This includes Community Safety Officers and crews available every Thursday to offer advice and distribute our winter warmth packs. These packs include: thermal blankets, hats, scarves, gloves, socks and others items such as hot water bottles and thermal mugs.”

Rector of St Michael’s, the Revd Dr Abbie Walsh, said: “We’ll work with the fire station to offer a warm space, a warm welcome, conversation and hot drinks. Additionally, the fire station will work with us to provide winter warm packs and promote home safety advice.

“The station has great community facilities and it’s wonderful to be working together so we can keep everyone in our community safe and warm this winter, while also offering companionship for those who might be on their own.”