ASPIRING firefighters were put through their paces at a recruitment day.

Kidlington fire station threw open its doors as part of a countywide campaign to encourage people to become retained firefighters.

There are currently 30 vacancies across the county.

Almost 30 people turned up for the ‘Have a Go Day’ in Sterling Road on Saturday.

Visitors were asked to climb ladders and hold on just by their legs and perform an exercise where they dragged a heavy casualty 30 metres to safety.

Group manager Grahame Mitchell said: “The Have a Go Day was a positive action day to try to raise awareness of under-represented groups to join the fire service.

“We were targeting female firefighters and people from Poland and other countries. It was a huge success.”