A popular Lincolnshire museum which showcases the achievements of the Royal Air Force (RAF) is appealing for a temporary location to house its extraordinary collection.
The Museum of RAF Firefighting has just a few weeks to find a spacious storage facility with the lease on its current Scunthorpe building owned by North Lincolnshire Council due to expire.
The museum features the largest fire collection in the UK, including 50 fire appliances and more than 100 tonnes of memorabilia to the RAF firefighting service, which was established 77 years ago during the Second World War.
The museum’s officials are keen to find a warehouse-sized building or an empty aircraft hangar to store the extensive collection in the short term, which will provide enough space to park the historic vehicles amongst other exhibits.
However, founder of the Museum of RAF Firefighting Steve Shirley, who served as an RAF firefighter himself for almost 40 years, voiced his concerns as the museum struggles to find a location.
Speaking to local media he said: “Unfortunately, the only thing on offer at the moment is outside storage in a haulage yard and, as you can imagine some of our stuff dates back to the 1940s, tt would deteriorate so quickly if we put it outside.”
Once a temporary home has been found, Shirley and his team of 40 volunteers who look after the collection will re-establish a new site in Lincolnshire for the RAF museum. They later plan to engage with the local council to help with the proposals and funding.
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