ASHBURTON firefighters had a call out to the town hall last week, not to tackle a fire but to hand over cheques for £175 each to the carnival committee and the town's information centre.

Eight of the firefighters, including the mayor Cllr Donald Distin, a crew manager at the fire station, raised the money during carnival week by running in the three-mile fun run. Not only that but they sweated it out by wearing full firefighting kit.

'It was hot and very tiring but we all completed the course,' said Cllr Distin.

His magnificent seven colleagues were area manager Matt Johnson, watch manager Jason Worthington, crew managers Chris Stanton, Kevin Lewis and Rik Dale, and firefighters Ian Jessop and Ricki Worrell.