Old Fire Station Discovered Behind Factory Door

A surprisingly intact fire station has been found hiding behind a basement door underneath a factory in Britain, Fox News reports. According to the BBC, staff with the Alan Nuttall Partnership, which has been operating out of the factory in Dudley for 30 years, found a set of old keys during renovations and discovered they fit an old door on the property. "We've always known it was here, but this is such a large site there are little corners that no one goes into," Nuttall operations director Matt Hornblower says. Behind the basement door, staff found what appears to be the private fire service of the factory's former tenant, the Co-operative Wholesale Society, unused since the 1960s at least.

“We came across all of these fascinating finds. There’s a set of seven or eight uniforms," Nuttall marketing manager Anna Bamford tells Fox News. “There’s a lot of hoses...There’s even an old gas mask.” There's also a pump that appears to be from the 1930s and a half-empty bottle of Pepsi. The names of firefighters are still chalked above their hanging uniforms, the Express & Star reports. Everything's covered in dust. The Alan Nuttall Partnership is now looking into restoring parts of the fire station and donating others to a museum. It's also hoping to track down the firefighters who worked there. (This might be the world's oldest ax.)