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26
Sept 2024
New figures show decline in fire engine availability in North Yorkshire
A senior North Yorkshire fire officer has admitted it is sometimes a “challenge to maintain all of the appliances” due to declining numbers of on-call firefighters.
The issue came under the spotlight during an online public meeting about fire prevention and protection held by Jo Coles, the deputy mayor for York and North Yorkshire who has oversight of policing, fire and crime.
Figures released showed overall average fire engine availability had decreased from 76% in 2023/24 to 70% so far in 2024/25.
Wholetime firefighter availability was 95% in 2023/24 but the availability of on-call firefighters, who work part-time and are based at home or at work rather than at stations, was just 68%.
Of the 38 fire stations in North Yorkshire, 25 are on-call stations. They include Boroughbridge, Knaresborough and Summerbridge in the Harrogate district.
Summerbridge's on-call fire station
Damian Henderson, area manager and director of service improvement and assurance at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, told the meeting:
We are a predominantly an on-call fire and rescue service and at times it is a challenge to maintain all of the appliances that we do have with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
A chart showed North Yorkshire ranked 27th of 43 fire services in terms of fire engine availability.
Mr Henderson pointed out higher ranking urban areas such as London and Greater Manchester “have got very low if no numbers of on-call staff so their availability is far higher”.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service runs two-week ‘safe to ride’ training courses for prospective online firefighters at Easingwold. It had to cancel one this year due to low take-up, but four upcoming courses are fully subscribed, the meeting heard.
Mr Henderson said a station manager had been recruited to oversee on-call activity, adding:
At some of our locations it is a real challenge to get people to commit to being on-call firefighters. It is something we are really working on. The on-call station manager is working with members of the on-call communities as well as employers to try to attract people into North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Ms Coles said there was an opportunity for the new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to ensure businesses supported staff who want to become on-call firefighters.
She asked if the public could expect to see the decrease in overall availability of fire engines reversed.
Mr Henderson replied:
With the number of courses we’ve now got subscribed we are very hopeful we will start to see an improvement in that availability figure.
Jonathan Dyson, chief fire officer at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.
He and chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson stressed the low availability figure did not mean 999 calls were going unanswered.
Mr Dyson added:
We move our appliances around on a continual basis to make sure that we are covering risk across the county. We can’t be equitable to everybody, but we try to be proportionate at all times. So we will always make sure that the areas of highest risk will have the fire cover required but we recognise people in rural areas also require fire cover so we move appliances around into those areas as well.
So as assurance to members of the public, there is always fire cover available. When anybody dials 999 they will get a response and we will be there as quick as we can.
The online public meeting can be viewed here.
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