| Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service | |
| Country: | England |
| Subdivision Type1: | County |
| Subdivision Name1: | Northumberland |
| Strength: | 462 |
| Budget: | £14.1million |
| Annual Calls: | 3,404 (2017 – 2018) |
| Chief: | Paul Hedley |
| Stations: | 15 |
Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) 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.
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. 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.
The current name was adopted in 1982, reflecting the type of callouts the service was receiving. Between 1966 and 2010, the brigade's headquarters had been in Morpeth, however, in June 2010, a new headquarters building and fire station was opened up at West Hartford in Cramlington.[1] [2] 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 £27million private finance initiative (PFI) project initiated by the North East Fire and Rescue Authority.[3]
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.[4]
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, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:
| Area | Rating 2018/19[5] | Rating 2021/22[6] | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effectiveness | Requires improvement | Requires improvement | How effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks? | |
| Efficiency | Requires improvement | Requires improvement | How efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks? | |
| People | Requires improvement | Requires improvement | How well does the fire and rescue service look after its people? |
The service's fire stations, which are crewed by wholetime firefighters, retained firefighters, or a combination of the two, are listed below.[7] Some of the stations are shared with other organisations.
| Station | Duty system | Appliances | 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 | |
| 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 | |
| Ponteland | Retained | fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle, Betsy water pumping unit | Opened in March 2021[8] |
| 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)[9] |
| 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 |
| Wooler | Retained | fire appliance, multi-purpose 4x4 vehicle | Sure Start |