Bristol’s former lord mayor travelled 2,000 miles to deliver them<\/p>\n
14:58, 04 Sep 2025Updated 15:43, 04 Sep 2025<\/p>\n
Two fire engines from Bristol have been donated to the Ukrainian city of Odesa to give vital aid in the war against Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Seven volunteers from Avon Fire & Rescue Service <\/a>(AFRS) and fire authority chairman Cllr Paul Goggin (Labour<\/a>, Hartcliffe<\/a> & Withywood) drove 2,000 miles to deliver the vehicles, which have reached the end of their service life in the UK but can still be used.<\/p>\n The fire engines included personal protective equipment, hydraulic cutting tools and water rescue gear, which were formally handed over to the Odesa City Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.<\/p>\n The Avon firefighters could go only as far as Moldova for the handover but Cllr Goggin, Bristol\u2019s former lord mayor, completed the epic journey and is now in Odesa, the country\u2019s third largest city at a key port location, which has been bombarded by the Russians but has managed to hold out.<\/p>\n Cllr Goggin said Russia\u2019s military had targeted Ukrainian firefighters responding to attacks.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cTravelling with our crews to deliver this equipment is a privilege. This isn\u2019t just about vehicles \u2013 it\u2019s about people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want the people of Ukraine to know they\u2019re not alone. This donation reflects the compassion and solidarity of our community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful example of how UK fire services can help those facing unimaginable hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n The convoy left Temple Fire Station in Bristol on Sunday, August 24, and drove through eight countries, often spending 15 hours a day on the road, including one day which clocked up nearly 1,000 miles.<\/p>\n Cllr Goggin said: \u201cWe stayed in camp beds in fire stations along the route \u2013 Whitstable, Frankfurt, Vienna, some town in Romania I can\u2019t remember, and Iasi, then in Chisinau \u2013 to keep the costs down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ukrainians raised the money for expenses at home so it cost the taxpayer nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n The mission was funded by charities Fire Aid and International Development, along with Ukraine Aid and Welfare.<\/p>\n Avon chief fire officer Matt Cook said: \u201cWith Fire Aid and International Development\u2019s support, we\u2019re making sure this life-saving equipment gets to where it\u2019s needed most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol’s former lord mayor travelled 2,000 miles to deliver them 14:58, 04 Sep 2025Updated 15:43, 04 Sep 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[18680,381,748,393,4884,14344,528,285,16,657,15,20076],"class_list":{"0":"post-398385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avon-fire-and-rescue","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hartcliffe","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-withywood"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115148406324731276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}