{"id":38752,"date":"2014-01-28T12:03:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T12:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bletherskite.net\/?p=5805"},"modified":"2014-01-28T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T12:03:09","slug":"vikings-force-closure-of-shetland-fire-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=38752","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Force Closure of Shetland Fire Station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bletherskite.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/72513526_72513521.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5808\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bletherskite.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/72513526_72513521.jpg\" width=\"304\" height=\"171\" \/><\/a>A Shetland fire station has been forced to close its doors as the result of a viking fire festival. Two fire fighters from the station on the Island of Bressay have refused to shave their beards ahead of today&#8217;s <em>Up Helly Aa<\/em> festival, which celebrates Shetland&#8217;s Viking heritage and culminates with the dramatic burning of a replica Viking galley.<\/p>\n<p>The island with 360 residents has been without fire cover since November because the men\u2019s beards prevent them from wearing breathing apparatus in an emergency. In the event of a fire, a crew from Lerwick would be ferried across the harbour, while officers from the island have been handing out fire prevention advice as a precautionary measure to the island\u2019s 360 residents.<\/p>\n<p>Local senior officer for the Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles, Billy Wilson, said: &#8220;Our retained staff do an excellent job and we recognise that the history and culture of a community will influence when members of a station may require time away from the service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is crucial as a service that we balance that with the wider issue of public safety and for that reason we have developed contingency plans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Up Helly Aa is an annual event held on a variety of differnt Shetland Islands to mark the end of the Yule season. It features a band of latter-day Viking warriors known as the Jarl Squad, and draws visitors from around the world. The Vikings traditionally spend much of the day making public appearances followed by celebrations which proceed well into the night. The day after is always a holiday on Shetland, allowing time for the vikings to recover.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the best of this years reactions on Twitter so far, and a live stream is also available from <a href=\"http:\/\/uphellyaa.com\/index-low.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2pm local time here<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>and so it begins&#8230;.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23UpHellyAa&amp;src=hash\">#UpHellyAa<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/h04UM0lOBG\">pic.twitter.com\/h04UM0lOBG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bombskare (@B0MBSKARE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/B0MBSKARE\/statuses\/428128298791469056\">January 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Hearing lots of hairy men shouting outside <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23uphellyaa&amp;src=hash\">#uphellyaa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chris Cope (@chrismcope) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismcope\/statuses\/428112032333053952\">January 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Its no every day you sit in hairdresser an 100+ marauding vikings and a brass band march past! Must be <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23uphellyaa&amp;src=hash\">#uphellyaa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rachel Laurenson (@Rua2000) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Rua2000\/statuses\/428107004973170688\">January 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Vikings having breakfast. This must be Shetland! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23uphellyaa&amp;src=hash\">#uphellyaa<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/V5pnbFcAbA\">pic.twitter.com\/V5pnbFcAbA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andy Buchanan (@acbphoto) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/acbphoto\/statuses\/428066447978668032\">January 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Shetland fire station has been forced to close its doors as the result of a viking fire festival. Two fire fighters from the station on the Island of Bressay have refused to shave their beards ahead of today&#8217;s Up Helly Aa festival, which celebrates Shetland&#8217;s Viking heritage and culminates with the dramatic burning of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188,7,12],"tags":[1217,425,1218,253],"class_list":["post-38752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scottish-events","category-scottish-history","category-scottish_news","tag-fire-festival","tag-shetland","tag-up-helly-aa","tag-vikings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vikings Force Closure of Shetland Fire Station -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=38752\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vikings Force Closure of Shetland Fire Station -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Shetland fire station has been forced to close its doors as the result of a viking fire festival. Two fire fighters from the station on the Island of Bressay have refused to shave their beards ahead of today&#8217;s Up Helly Aa festival, which celebrates Shetland&#8217;s Viking heritage and culminates with the dramatic burning of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=38752\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-28T12:03:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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