TV GARDEN celebrity Charlie Dimmock swapped her spade for a hose last night in an attempt to attract more people to become fire-fighters.

Charlie, from BBC's Ground Force, donned the firefighters' kit at Romsey's fire station in Alma Road.

The station has been under threat of losing one of its two appliances because Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service could not recruit enough retained firefighters.

Now, after a recruitment drive, ten people in the town want to fill six posts and hopefully save the appli-ance when they are trained.

There are about 90 retained firefight-er vacancies across the whole county so Charlie, who lives in Romsey, turned up to encourage people from all over Hampshire to join.

She said: "I wanted to help these guys because they do such a wonderful job. "I was surprised there weren't more woman recruited so I am especially here to encourage them to join."

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