00:00It came out of nowhere, but Grain has been revealed as one of the nine fire stations in the county
00:07that could close
00:09after an email was mistakenly shared with fire service staff.
00:14Five on-call sites could be axed.
00:17Grain, Wye, Chillum, Westerham and Cliff, which are staffed by on-call emergency responders.
00:24Grain has its own geographical challenges, such as only being accessible by one road
00:29and being quite far from other stations like Hoo and Strood,
00:34which is why controversial councillor Chris Spalding weighed in.
00:37The big thing about Grain is it's not just a village or agriculture.
00:42We have some serious major industry here.
00:46We have the Grain Liquid National Gas Import Terminal.
00:49We have BP's Aviation Import Terminal.
00:52Both of these are designated by the Health and Safety Executive as coma sites,
00:57major hazardous areas of industrial infrastructure.
01:02So what could this mean for those actually living in the peninsula?
01:06I'm in Grain right now, and with this fire station set to close,
01:11there's also one at the other end of the peninsula in Cliff.
01:14That leaves just Hoo Fire Station to cover the entire peninsula.
01:19How far away is that?
01:20Well, if we have a look on the sat-nav,
01:24we can see that were a fire engine need to come from Hoo to Grain,
01:29it would need to travel 18 minutes.
01:33Residents felt their Hoo village was under fire.
01:36Well, it's ridiculous, it's stupid.
01:39We've got one road in to all these villages,
01:42so if there was a really big fire,
01:45it's going to be stupid.
01:48I know they're only a part-time fire station,
01:51but it's still quicker because they all work in the facility,
01:55and it's still quicker than getting them out from Stroot.
01:57The nearest one, he's watched her, innit?
02:00By the time they come out here, right,
02:03nothing burnt down, couldn't it?
02:05There's been so many accidents and incidents.
02:08We need a fire brigade.
02:10But the head of Kent Fire and Rescue Service
02:13claimed that the demand just wasn't there.
02:16So they'll be strewed and Hoo,
02:18and on that basis they will be able to get to those people in the peninsula.
02:21It'll be slightly more time,
02:24but again, we have very, very little demand in that area, very little.
02:28But until Grain residents find out further information,
02:32they'll have to try and not let the news dampen their spirits.
02:37Megan Sharp for KMTV, InGrain.
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