They
sail around the Saturday night streets containing ladies blowing whistles
and wearing cheap plastic fireman helmets, brandishing L-plates and
Bacardi Breezers, filling their whooping gullets while loudly tormenting the
night’s pedestrians. Fire Engine Limos have proved to be a revolution
in the entertainment of drunk women. The unprecedented popularity of the novelty
limo service astounded many in the Limousine Industry and Fire Brigade. Its
simple conversion from life saving emergency vehicle to mobile theme pub was
low cost and successful amongst the punters, who often reported to be having
a great time amongst the screeching and vomiting. Riding through the centre
of town in their best outfits, the orange skinned throng roars with boozed
laughter, screaming its multi-handed wave at fellow drinkers and bemused pedestrians.
“Oi, sexy arse,” they quip, “Show us your arse!”
The Limousine service is now one of Glasgow’s largest service industries,
employing over 100 former firemen as drivers and chaperones. The range of
choice has expanded, with Ambulance and Air Sea Rescue Helicopter Limos also
proving exceedingly popular. The vehicles are even having to be brought in
from neighbouring towns and cities, with emergency services making adjustments
in fleet size where appropriate, to supply the demand. By the end of 2007,
Fire Engine Limo, or ‘Emergency Party Hire’ companies,
as they had become known, owned 55% of the Fire Engines and 39% of Ambulances
in Glasgow. Other UK cities followed suite.
Feeling the strain of increasing levels of night time violence in city centres,
the Emergency Services signed a £70 million contract with the largest
Emergency Party Hire company, 999-P-A-R-T-Y, for them to provide
rapid response vehicles and crews for local health trusts and fire brigades
in mainland Britain. The move was applauded for its modern approach and bold
new thinking by both the public and private sectors. October 2008 saw the
first Ambulance Limo diverted to emergency use, a 55 year old man collapsing
in an ASDA car park from a massive heart attack. He was delivered to the Glasgow
Infirmary by a hen night travelling in a 1984 Leyland Ambulance and sadly
declared dead on arrival. But the ability of amateur paramedics to perform
while inebriated and carry out a task, such as transporting a body, successfully
and quickly, had been demonstrated.
The arrangement was seen as positive in the eyes of the general public as
well. With as many as twenty nine Fire Engine, fifteen ambulance limos and
two party hire rescue helicopters circling Glasgow city centre on a Saturday
night, people saw the service as a way for young drunk people to give back
to the community, to be able to look after other drunk people who had been
involved in various fights or accidents during the course of the evening,
and at the same time learn valuable search, rescue and first aid skills.
