IT'S been a long time coming, it may not be particularly young, and it still hasn't got a proper home, but Grassington's volunteer fire service now has a real fire engine.

The group was established almost 20 years ago and "home" is presently shared accommodation at the highways depot near the Threshfield junction. Before that the brigade has shared a base at the ambulance station in the centre of Grassington.

Their appliance in all that time has been a specially converted Land Rover which would be put into operation during call-outs in and around Grassington. It also provided a back-up service to Skipton, Settle and Bentham stations.

For some time now the team has been promised a new engine and hoped to have it in place in time to take part in Skipton Gala.

Sadly that was not to be, and the absolutely, definitely, certain delivery date of June 3 came....and went. But although missing the gala by two days, the men are nevertheless delighted with their vehicle which has come from the brigade's training school near York.

And although fairly long in the tooth, the engine is no less functional than its brand new counterparts.

All that remains is to improve the depot where the group meets for practise each Monday evening. There the team goes through its drill.

However, while acknowledging the fact they were effectively the "poor relation" the depot's group of dedicated and highly trained volunteers remain willing to turn out at all times and in all weathers to answer distress calls.

Along with the new engine comes an ISDN line which delivers print-outs of the call details directly to the depot rather than relying on someone in Northallerton alerting their pagers.

"Before someone had to come to the depot to ring Northallerton to find out where the problem was and then pass the information to the men. Now they will receive print-outs at the same time as all the other stations," said Skipton station officer Richard Bacon.

This will help save valuable time in arriving at fires, although generally the team can be at a scene within 10 minutes.

Two years ago the team averted a tragedy in Grassington when a fire began in a kitchen in Aynham Close. Members were paged and were fighting the fire within 10 minutes of being called.

The volunteer firefighters are hoping to attend shows around the area with their new appliance. Over the years the group has consistently managed to raise large sums of money for the Fire Service National Benevolent Fund and their visibility at these events will now be intensified.

It also helps to have a four-legged mascot - border collie Midge owned by Andy Hiscox - to draw an audience who invariably donate to the cause.