Rewarding fire crew heroes money for jam

 Charitable youngsters Taylor McLean, second from left, and her sister Kate try using a fire hose...
Charitable youngsters Taylor McLean, second from left, and her sister Kate try using a fire hose with Portobello volunteer firefighters Paul Helm (left) and Scott Unsworth. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
After Portobello firefighters stopped a blaze from reaching their grandmother's house, two Company Bay girls pledged to pay them back one jam scone at a time.

Earlier this month the crew held at bay a blaze heading in the direction of Jan McLean's home and doll studio in Portobello.

Her grandchildren Taylor (10) and Kate (8) McLean then put their heads together and thought of a way to reward their local heroes.

With the help of their grandma they conceived of opening the doll studio over Labour Weekend and treating friends, family and locals to tours and Devonshire tea for $5 a pop.

Kate would give tours of the studio, while Taylor would serve the tea, coffee and scones.

Taylor said she created publicity flyers while her mother helped put the word out on social media.

``Lots of my friends from school came and some of Grandma's friends.''

The pair raised $200 from the 40 people who passed through over the three days.

``At one point the jam ran out and we had to use feijoa jelly,'' Taylor said.

She wanted to help the firefighters because she admired how they were willing to help other people in any weather conditions.

``We wanted to do something for them to show we appreciated them.''

She was not envious of the midnight callouts.

``I think they do a really good job and they stay up really late and sometimes when they're sleeping they get called up and they've got to go.

She would consider becoming a firefighter in the future, however.

``I quite like the gas masks.''

Mother Antionette McLean said the girls came up with the idea and ``worked all weekend''.

Portobello volunteer firefighter Tony Reid said the girls' efforts were ``brilliant''.

``It's really impressive to see young kids doing this kind of stuff. They've seen us going to quite a few call-outs.''

Their donation would go towards medical equipment and training.

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