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North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service

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North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
Operational area
CountryEngland
CountyNorth Yorkshire
Agency overview
Annual calls15,000 (2016)
Chief Fire OfficerJon Dyson[1]
Facilities and equipment
Divisions8
Stations38[2]
Engines43[2]
Platforms3
Rescues3
HAZMAT1
Rescue boats3
Website
www.northyorksfire.gov.uk Edit this at Wikidata

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the area of the unitary authorities of North Yorkshire and the City of York. The service covers an area of 3,209 square miles (8,310 km2) and serves a population of 830,000.[2] It is divided into eight groups related to the above districts.[3]

Performance

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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). The inspections investigate how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service was rated as follows:

HMICFRS Inspection North Yorkshire
Area Rating 2018/19[4] Rating 2021/22[5] Description
Effectiveness Good Requires improvement How effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
Efficiency Requires improvement Inadequate How efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks?
People Requires improvement Inadequate How well does the fire and rescue service look after its people?

History

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Like all areas of the country, independent fire brigades developed in towns and cities across England which catered for the immediate area and were sponsored by the local authority. Examples within North Yorkshire were the Scarborough Fire Brigade, the Whitby Town Fire Brigade, and Pocklington Town Fire Brigade, which were merged in 1948 into the North Riding Fire Brigade.[6][7] York had a separate professional fire brigade instituted in 1940 (under a Fire act of 1938), which was subsumed into the North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service in 1996 when the City of York Council and the North Yorkshire Fire Authority combined their efforts into one fire authority.[8][9] In 1947, the North Riding Fire Brigade had three divisions; Eston (A), Northallerton (B) and Scarborough (C).[10]

Fire stations and services have fluctuated with changing council and local authority areas and with cutbacks to the fire service itself. The North Riding Fire Brigade lost some of its most northern areas around Guisborough and Saltburn to the newly formed Teesside Fire service in 1968.[10] Teesside later became Cleveland Fire Brigade.[11] The county boundary changes of 1974 had a profound effect on North Yorkshire, as the area it covered increased from 2,116 square miles (5,480 km2) to 3,207 square miles (8,310 km2) and saw an increase in stations from 30 to 34.[12][13] In the 1970s, the brigade closed Whixley fire station near Boroughbridge, and in 2013, Snainton fire station near Scarborough was closed too. Cover would be supplied from nearby Whitby and Scarborough fire stations.[14]

In 2016, in line with other fire and police force mergers, a proposal was put forward that North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue merge with the Humberside Fire & Rescue Service.[15] However, the proposal was not backed by the leaders of county councils and emergency commissioners from the Humberside operating area, and so the merger proposal was shelved.[16]

In 2018, the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Julia Mulligan, also took on the role of fire commissioner for North Yorkshire.[17] In October 2021, the incumbent commissioner Philip Allott resigned following comments surrounding the murder of Sarah Everard.[18]

Stations

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Clockwise from top left: Some of the service's fire stations in Acomb, Harrogate, Grassington and Selby

The service has a total of 38 fire stations.[2] The majority of these are crewed by retained firefighters, with the minority being wholetime or day-crewed.[19] North Yorkshire also has two fire stations which are crewed by volunteers. The breakdown of station crewing is:[19][20]

  • Five wholetime shift fire stations
  • Seven wholetime day-crewed stations
  • 24 retained stations
  • Two volunteer-crewed stations

In addition to the fire stations, there are a headquarters and control room in Northallerton and a training centre in Easingwold. The fire service also shares the transport and logistics hub in Thirsk with North Yorkshire Police.[19]

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue appliance

Incidents and statistics

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The FRS received a total number of 19,000 emergency calls in 2007, as well as this the service also dealt with 9,000 incidents that year.[21] Additionally, the service experienced a drop in call-outs by 32% between 2003 and 2013.[22] The total number of incidents attended in the 2014-15 year was 6,874, of which 3,777 were false alarms.[23]

By 2016, this had dropped to 15,000 and received notoriety when a crew in Harrogate was delayed in getting to a car fire after it emerged they had been sent to the wrong location by a control room in Cornwall. NYFRS shares its control room operations with the Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service during peak periods. A later investigation determined that the mix-up was down to the caller not supplying timely information rather than the Cornish operator not having 'local' knowledge.[24]

Notable incidents

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  • 9 July 1984 – York Minster fire - 150 firefighters from across North Yorkshire fought the blaze which caused over £1 million worth of damage and was believed to have been caused by lightning[25]
  • 24 May 1995 – Dunkeswick air crash[26]
  • 28 December 1996 – an explosion at a gas bottling plant in Aiskew near Bedale, resulted in flames shooting 100 feet (30 m) in the air and the evacuation of 200 people. A gas engineer and the fire service turned off the valves and managed to extinguish the fire. At its height, the response from the NYF&RS was 80 firefighters and 18 appliances[27][28][29]
  • 10 August 2021 – a fire at Bilsdale transmitting station involved eight pumps from across North Yorkshire[30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Minting, Stuart (25 May 2022). "Jonathan Dyson appointed as new North Yorkshire chief fire officer". Rombalds Radio. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service". HMICFRS. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Division on the FRS, coverage areas". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
  4. ^ "North Yorkshire 2018/19". His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). 17 December 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  5. ^ "North Yorkshire 2021/22". His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). 20 January 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre | Fire Brigade". www.scarboroughsmaritimeheritage.org.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  7. ^ "Pocklington History - The Great Fire of Pocklington". pocklingtonhistory.com. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Fire Authority - North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service". www.northyorksfire.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  9. ^ "The North Yorkshire Fire Services (Combination Scheme) Order 1995". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  10. ^ a b Ashcroft, M. Y., ed. (1974). A history of the North Riding of Yorkshire County Council, 1889-1974. Northallerton (County Hall, North Allerton[sic], Yorkshire): North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. p. 53. ISBN 0950343005.
  11. ^ "Roger Mardon fire service history - Fire Brigades - England - Changes 1948-1974". www.romar.org.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Roger Mardon fire service history - Fire Brigades - England 1948". www.romar.org.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. ^ "Roger Mardon fire service history - Fire Brigades - England 1974". www.romar.org.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  14. ^ "Then and now: Fire station's red sliding doors close for good". The Yorkshire Post. 6 April 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  15. ^ Prest, Victoria (20 October 2016). "North Yorkshire and Humberside fire brigade merger suggested". The Press. York. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Fire merger plans face rejection". The Yorkshire Post. Leeds. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  17. ^ "Fire service 'raided budget reserves'". BBC News. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  18. ^ "Sarah Everard: Commissioner Philip Allott resigns". BBC News. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  19. ^ a b c "Our fire stations". North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  20. ^ "Fire stations map" (PDF). North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Statistics and callout responses". Retrieved 1 February 2007.
  22. ^ "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service reviews cover". BBC News. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  23. ^ "The future of your Fire & Rescue Service" (PDF). harrogatenews.co.uk. North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service. p. 9. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  24. ^ "Cornwall 999 team cleared of mix-up with North Yorkshire fire crew". BBC News. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  25. ^ "1984: Historic York Minster engulfed by flames". BBC News. 9 July 1984. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  26. ^ "12 die as Aberdeen-bound plane crashes in storm. 12 die as plane crashes in field". HeraldScotland. 25 May 1995. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  27. ^ "Gas explosions". The Sunday Times. 29 December 1996. p. 20. ISSN 0956-1382.
  28. ^ Foster, Mark (31 December 1999). "Residents oppose homes plan for gas". The Northern Echo. p. 6. ISSN 2043-0442.
  29. ^ "Pilot risks own life to save town from blast - years ago 20". Evening Gazette. 29 December 2016. p. 22. ISSN 2056-6131.
  30. ^ Mitchinson, James, ed. (11 August 2021). "Fire crews put out fire at remote 1,000 ft tower". The Yorkshire Post. p. 1. ISSN 0963-1496.
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