Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service

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Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service
Operational area
CountryEngland
CountyNorthumberland
Agency overview
Annual calls3,404 (2017 – 2018)
Employees462
Annual budget£14.1 million
Fire chiefPaul Hedley
Website
www.northumberland.gov.uk/fire.aspx Edit this at Wikidata
Northumberland Fire appliance
An Optare Metrorider being used for fire training by the Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service in 2010.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Northumberland in North East England. Its headquarters are co-located with West Hartford fire station in Cramlington.

History[]

Amble fire station

The Northumberland Fire Brigade (NFB) was formed in 1948 from the many local fire services located in the traditional county of Northumbria, between the Tyne and the Tweed rivers.[1] The Local Government Reorganisation act (1971), which came into effect in 1974, saw the transfer of four of the busiest NFB stations (Gosforth, Newburn, Wallsend and Whitley Bay), into the newly formed Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service. This also prompted a name change to Northumberland County Fire Brigade.[2]

The current name was adopted in 1982, reflecting the type of callouts the service was receiving.[3] Between 1966 and 2010, the brigade's headquarters had been in Morpeth,[4] however, in June 2010, a new headquarters building and fire station was opened up at West Hartford in Cramlington.[5][6] The headquarters, together with a new fire station at Pegswood and other fire stations across the North East region, were constructed as part of a £27 million private finance initiative (PFI) project initiated by the North East Fire and Rescue Authority.[7]

Annual callouts for the service average around 3,400. In the period from October 2017 to September 2018, Northumberland had 3,404 callouts of which 44% were fires, 37% were false alarms, and 19% were non-fire incidents.[8]

Performance[]

In 2018/2019, every fire and rescue service in England and Wales was subjected to a statutory inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HIMCFRS). The inspection investigated how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:[9]

HMICFRS Inspection Northumberland 2018/19
Area Rating Description
Effectiveness Requires improvement How effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
Efficiency Requires improvement How efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
People Requires improvement How well does the fire and rescue service look after its people?

Fire stations and appliances[]

The service's fire stations, which are crewed by wholetime firefighters, retained firefighters, or a combination of the two, are listed below.[10] Some of the stations are shared with other organisations.

Station Duty system[10] Appliances[10] Notes
Allendale Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle Sure Start
Alnwick Retained 2x fire appliances,multi-purpose 4x4
Amble Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle North East Ambulance Service
Belford Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle
Bellingham Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle
  • Northumbria Police
  • Sure Start
Berwick Wholetime / Retained 2x fire appliances, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle, swift water rescue team, animal rescue equipment, decontamination shower, air shelter, explosimeter, oversized drums for safely dealing with chemical incidents
Haltwhistle Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle
Hexham Wholetime / Retained 2x fire appliances, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle, swift water rescue team, animal rescue equipment, decontamination shower, explosimeter, gas detection monitor, oversized drums for safely dealing with chemical incidents, radiation contamination meter
Holy Island Unstaffed (crewed from neighbouring stations) fire appliance
Pegswood Wholetime / Retained 3x fire appliances, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle, high volume pumping unit, swift water rescue team, flood prevention unit, incident support unit, animal rescue equipment, environmental protection equipment, oversized drums for safely dealing with chemical incidents, radiation contamination meter
  • Northumberland National Park mountain rescue team.
  • Northumberland Probation Service
  • Sure Start
Ponteland Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle, Betsy water pumping unit Opened in March 2021[11]
Prudhoe Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle North East Ambulance Service
Rothbury Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle Sure Start (opened in 2010)[12]
Seahouses Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle Sure Start
West Hartford Wholetime 2x fire appliances, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicles, multi-purpose vans, multiple light support vehicles, minibus, fire investigation unit, incident response unit, snow plough and gritter units, wildfire unit, specialist rescue unit, animal response equipment, dams and portable reservoirs, decontamination shower, air shelter, crowd barriers, forklift truck, oversized drums for safely dealing with chemical incidents, radiation contamination meter North East Ambulance Service & Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service headquarters - opened in 2010[5]
Wooler Retained fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle Sure Start

The fire station at Haydon Bridge closed in 2016.[13]


See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Henderson 2005, p. 4.
  2. ^ Henderson 2005, p. 133.
  3. ^ Henderson 2005, p. 143.
  4. ^ Henderson 2005, p. 95.
  5. ^ a b "Pupils help Brigade send a message to the future". infoweb.newsbank.com. 10 June 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  6. ^ "Ministerial visit to Northumberland's new fire headquarters". Fire Magazine. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  7. ^ "NEFRA Collaborative PFI Project - Report of the chief fire officer, finance officer and clerk to the authority". Tyne And Wear Fire And Rescue Authority. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Fire & Rescue Service Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2018/19" (PDF). justice inspectorate.gov.uk. 2019. p. 2. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Northumberland 2018/19". Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HIMCFRS). 20 June 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  10. ^ a b c "Our fire stations". Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  11. ^ Graham, Hannah (21 March 2021). "State-of-the-art new fire station officially opened in Ponteland". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  12. ^ "Duchess opens new fire station for town". infoweb.newsbank.com. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  13. ^ Muncaster, Michael (31 March 2016). "Northumberland lost nearly 30% of its firefighter staff in last five years - the most in the country". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 30 July 2021.

Sources[]

  • Henderson, Ron (2005). Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-3540-X.

External links[]


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