Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service

Last updated

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service logo.svg
The Service's badge features a Stafford knot
Operational area
CountryEngland
County Staffordshire
Agency overview
Established1974 (1974)
Chief Fire Officer Rob Barber
Facilities and equipment
Stations 33
Engines 39
Trucks 2
Rescues 1
Rescue boats 2
Website
www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service responsible for fire protection, prevention, intervention and emergency rescue in the county of Staffordshire and unitary authority of Stoke-on-Trent. [1] The county has a population of 1,126,200 (mid-2017 estimate) and covers a total area of 2,260 km2 (870 square miles). [2] Staffordshire shares the majority of its border with Derbyshire, Cheshire, West Midlands (County) and Shropshire; although, in much shorter stretches, the county also butts up against Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire.

Contents

As of 1 August 2018, the fire service functions under the control of the Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner [3] acting as the Fire & Rescue Authority.

The county provides considerable risks to its residents and firefighters. These include the industrial city of Stoke-on-Trent and the large industrial towns of Burton-upon-Trent, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Tamworth and Cannock.

The M6 motorway runs through the county, as does the M6 Toll road. The main 'A‘ roads the A5, A50, A34 and A38 also cross the county. These well-used routes are regularly the scene of numerous road traffic accidents, vehicle fires and chemical incidents.

There are also many significant rural risks in Staffordshire: The medieval hunting grounds of Cannock Chase is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and is made up of heathland, chaseland and forest that stretches between Stafford, Cannock, Rugeley and Chase Terrace. In the north of the county the Staffordshire Moorlands is an area of remote wilderness where The Pennines spill over the Derbyshire and Cheshire borders, and has an area of around 576 km2 (222 square miles). These areas pose a considerable risk of wildfires, and regularly keep firefighters extremely busy during hot dry spells. Also, the moorlands offer their own logistical difficulties during harsh winters, particularly to the residents of the towns and villages dotted throughout the hills - towns like Leek and Biddulph, and the villages of Ipstones and Longnor amongst others. The Staffordshire Moorlands is home to Flash, the highest village in The United Kingdom, which stands at 463 m (1,519 feet) above sea level.

Organisation

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service ceremonial squad Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service Ceremonial Squad.jpg
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service ceremonial squad

The service is run under the command of the Chief Fire Officer and an executive board, and provides emergency response from 33 strategically located fire stations, divided into three delivery groups:

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service has its headquarters and training school at Pirehill near the town of Stone in mid-Staffordshire. Their fire control centre used to be at Pirehill, but was closed after its amalgamation with fire control of the West Midlands Fire Service in March 2014. Both brigades operate under a joint control centre situated in Birmingham. The county's maintenance workshops are located at the Joint Emergency Transport Facility in Trentham Lakes industrial park, a joint workshop with Staffordshire Police.

A Scania P94D appliance outside Brewood Fire Station in October 2015 Brewood Fire Station.jpg
A Scania P94D appliance outside Brewood Fire Station in October 2015

Of the 33 strategically located fire stations, only Stafford, Tamworth Belgrave and Sandyford operate on a completely 24/7 wholetime duty system.

Longton, Hanley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Cannock and Burton-upon-Trent operate as wholetime plus retained stations (WDS/RDS), which means, along with a 24-hour station-based complement of firefighters, they have retained on-call "back-up" personnel that, when required, crew the second fire engine housed at the fire station, as well as some of the specialist appliances that may be stationed there. All wholetime firefighters work the four "watch" system. This produces an eight-day rota, with crews operating on a "two-days-on, two-nights-on, four-days-off" system.

Leek and Lichfield fire stations operate as day-crewed and retained: firefighters respond from the fire station as wholetime firefighters between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm with a retained on-call crew available if needed to crew other appliances based at the station. After 6:00 pm the stations become retained on-call only, and the fire appliances are crewed by the same firefighters but not from the station itself.

All other Staffordshire fire stations operate the "on-call" retained duty system. All retained firefighters respond from home or work, and are notified by a pager, and, therefore, have to live or work within five minutes driving time of their station to meet strict Home Office response times.

Austerity, budget cuts and modernisation

After the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, the British government adopted austerity measures.

By 2009, austerity had seen 70 full-time firefighter jobs lost in Staffordshire alone. Then between 2011 and 2015 Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were forced to make a £4 million saving. In 2016 they had a further £1.5 million cut from their £45 million annual budget.

Along with firefighters, appliances were lost too. Burton-upon-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme each used to operate two wholetime fire engines and one retained. Both stations had a wholetime pump replaced by a 'targeted response vehicle': a smaller fire appliance based on a Mercedes-Benz van chassis. Several of these appliances were purchased over the next few years, and were used in place of conventional full-sized fire engines. Reports of their effectiveness were mixed, but eventually all but one of them has been retired or mothballed. Today only Lichfield operate one, and is crewed by their retained sector.

Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent city centre used to operate a turntable ladder high-reach appliance, but it was never replaced when it was retired. County town Stafford once operated two wholetime pumps, a high-reach aerial ladder platform, a rescue tender and a rope rescue unit. Today it just operates one wholetime pump and the ageing Land Rover rope rescue unit. Its hydraulic platform and rescue tender were not replaced upon their retirement, and their second pump transferred to the newly built Rising Brook retained fire station on the opposite side of the town, but only operates on an on-call basis.

Burslem fire station in Stoke-on-Trent was once a wholetime/retained station operating two pumps and a foam tender, but when in 2011 a new one-pump wholetime fire station became operational at Sandyford near Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem fire station became a single-pump retained set-up, with their foam capability transferring to Cheadle. At the same time the two-pump day-crewed/retained station at Kidsgrove to the north of Stoke lost their day-crewed pump, becoming a one-pump retained station.

The two-pump retained fire stations of Uttoxeter, Cheadle and Wombourne each lost their water tender in 2007. With two-pump retained Rugeley and Stone losing theirs in 2016.

In 2010/2011, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service began a major fire station rebuild and modernisation programme. The £100M required to build twenty-two 'community fire stations' and to modernise six others came from a PFI initiative. The towns of Stafford and Tamworth also gained a second fire station to enable firefighters to meet strict attendance times in the congested towns. The extensive rebuild was divided into two phases:

Performance

Every fire and rescue service in England and Wales is periodically subjected to a statutory inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). [1] The inspections investigate how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:

HMICFRS Inspection Staffordshire
AreaRating 2018/19 [4] Rating 2021/22 [5] Description
EffectivenessGoodGoodHow effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
EfficiencyGoodRequires improvementHow efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
PeopleGoodRequires improvementHow well does the fire and rescue service look after its people?

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surrey Fire and Rescue Service</span>

The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the County of Surrey, England, with 25 fire stations. It comes under the administrative and legislative control of Surrey County Council, acting as the fire authority who fund the service by collecting a precept via council tax, and from central government funds, known as a grant settlement, and provide the political leadership for the service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service for West Sussex, England

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the administrative county of West Sussex, England. It is part of West Sussex County Council. As of March 2018, the county has 25 fire stations.

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the fire and rescue service for the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in England, consisting of the unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, and Luton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in south west England

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the counties Devon and Somerset in South West England – an area of 3,924 square miles (10,160 km2). It serves a population of 1.75 million, and is the fifth largest fire and rescue service in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essex County Fire and Rescue Service</span> Regional fire and rescue service in England

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Essex in the east of England, and is one of the largest fire services in the country, covering an area of 1,338 square miles (3,470 km2) and a population of over 1.7 million people.

The Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, England. The service is run by Gloucestershire County Council. The service does not cover the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire which is covered by Avon Fire and Rescue Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in southern England

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) is a statutory fire and rescue service covering the area of the ceremonial county of Berkshire in England. The fire service was formerly administered by Berkshire County Council, but when that was abolished the service became the responsibility of the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority, made up of representatives from the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest Borough Council, Reading Borough Council, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Slough Borough Council, West Berkshire Council, and Wokingham Borough Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in England

East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service (ESFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of East Sussex and city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is headquartered in Lewes. The service has a total of 24 fire stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in south east England

Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the administrative county of Kent and the unitary authority area of Medway, covering a geographical area south-east of London, to the coast and including major shipping routes via the Thames and Medway rivers. The total coastline covered is 225 km ; it has 55 fire stations, and four district fire safety offices. The FRS provides emergency cover to a population of nearly 2 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in north east England

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering an area of 2,432 km2, for the unitary authority areas of County Durham and Darlington. The service area borders with Cleveland Fire Brigade, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in western England

The Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service covering Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the West Midlands region of England. The service covers an area of 1,514 square miles (3,920 km2), and a population of around 780,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service</span> England fire and rescue service

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service serving the county of Warwickshire in the West Midlands region of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue</span> Local emergency services organisation in England

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue is the statutory fire and rescue service for the area of South Yorkshire, England. The service covers the areas of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. In 2020, Chris Kirby was appointed its Chief Fire Officer.

The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the fire service serving the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is predominantly an on-call fire service, although also has whole-time support.

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service is the fire and rescue service which serves the ceremonial counties of Leicestershire and Rutland in England. The service's headquarters are in Birstall, on the outskirts of Leicester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in southern England

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Hertfordshire, England. HFRS covers an area of 1,514 square miles (3,920 km2) and a population of 1.19 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in south west England

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering Cornwall, England. As of April 2019, the service employs over 400 retained firefighters, 203 full-time firefighters, plus 170 support and administrative staff. Created under the Fire Services Act 1947 as "Cornwall County Fire Brigade", the name changed to "Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service" on 1 October 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service</span> Statutory fire and rescue service

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Norfolk in the east of England. The county consists of around 870,100 people, covering the 4th largest area in England with 2,074 square miles including 200 miles of inland waterways, 90 miles of coastline and 6,125 miles of roads. The county city is Norwich with other major towns including Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn and Thetford. Norfolk has one of the 20 Urban Search and Rescue teams across England and Wales which were set up in response to the 9/11 attacks. The teams, including Norfolk, have the capacity to deal with two simultaneous incidents across the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service of England

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue (LFR) is the statutory fire and rescue service serving the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire in the East Midlands Region of England. This does not include North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, which are covered by Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service</span>

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England. It was formed in 1948 as the Suffolk & Ipswich Fire Service, before changing after the 1974 Local Government Review to 'Suffolk Fire Service'. Following the 2004 Fire & Rescue Services Act, the service name was changed to Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service to better reflect its role. Suffolk has a population of 760,556 and covers 1,466 square miles (3,800 km2). The county town is Ipswich with other major towns including Lowestoft, Bury St-Edmunds, Felixstowe and Newmarket.

References

  1. 1 2 "Staffordshire". His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. 19 July 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  2. ↑ "Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue – Sustainability West Midlands" . Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire (Fire and Rescue Authority) Order 2018".
  4. ↑ "Staffordshire 2018/19". Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). 17 December 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Staffordshire 2021/22". Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). 27 July 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.