Remember fire station? (From Penarth Times)

Remember fire station?

READING your article about the renovation of the Belle Vue building, I wondered how many people recall its use as a fire station as well as council offices?

Readers may be interested in a remarkable event which happened in 1948.

My wife and I lived in an attic flat, three floors up in the house nearest to St Augustine's in Albert Crescent.

The only heating was a small fire in the front room which we were careful to put out before we went to bed.

One night, about 2 or 3am, my wife woke me up to say she had had a "waking" dream. She was wide awake in the dream and saw that there were firemen in the house.

Despite my attempt to placate her fears, she was adamant.

Somewhat sceptical I got up and checked that the little fire had been completely extinguished and sniffed around for signs of smoke.

There were no signs of anything burning so, returning to bed, we settled back to sleep.

Next morning I went down to get the milk, only to be stopped by our neighbour in the flat below.

He complained that I had locked him out the previous evening.

It probably happened when I took the empty milk bottle down and may have accidentally dropped the safety latch.

He and his wife had gone out for a meal with friends and got back about 1am, to find the door locked.

They tried unsuccessfully to wake us up by throwing stones up to our bedroom window.

In desperation, they decided to seek help from the firemen in Belle Vue.

The firemen got out their extending ladder, prised open the window of their flat, got in and opened the front door.

Joan's dream was true. Russell Evans Millbrook Heights Dinas Powys