Rural firefighters plea as crews under strain

Rural fire crews have put out a plea for on-call recruits, as they struggle to provide cover in North Yorkshire.

Settle and Bentham fire stations are among those under "great strain", with only five and seven firefighters based at each one.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (NYFRS) station manager Chris Watson said the service had sometimes had to rely on other bases miles away to help respond to incidents.

He urged people who lived or worked within four minutes of the stations to consider joining the service, which fits around working other jobs.

"An on-call firefighter is somebody who has an everyday job, an everyday life, and then during an emergency, their pager will activate and they rush to the fire station," Mr Watson said.

He explained the role was the same as any other firefighter, but on a part-time basis, in areas with a low risk of fires.

York and Harrogate are considered high risk, with full-time stations, but Settle and Bentham rely on on-call recruits.

NYFRS said it was looking for people with reasonable fitness, who are practical in nature and flexible.

Living close to the station was also important, which Mr Watson said was a struggle in rural areas due to socio-economic issues.

"To get a fire engine out of the door, we need a minimum of four firefighters to respond to an incident," the station manager said.

"There's a great strain at the moment on people at Bentham and Settle to provide cover 24 hours a day and seven days a week."

With contracts changing to provide greater flexibility, he hoped to have between 12 and 14 firefighters on the books at each fire station.

Although the current staff were able to cover most incidents, Mr Watson said sometimes it was "just not possible" to fill the gaps and help from other stations was needed.

He said there were programmes in place to get new recruits up to the fitness and learning standards needed.

Matthew Johnson, who works in sales, has been an on-call firefighter at Bentham for two years.

"My full-time job is a desk job so I was longing for a bit more excitement and adventure," he said.

"My rota is anything from 19:00 to 07:00, five nights a week and alternate weekends."

Mr Johnson said he still managed to have a life balance and had a supportive family who were understanding of what the job entailed.

"My very first job was on my birthday and within 10 minutes of starting my shift, the alert went off," he said.

"I remember getting to the station as a nervous young pup but we rushed out to an RTC."

Since then he has been out to everything from house fires to animal rescues and has undergone lots of training.

"The best advice I can give is to just do it," Mr Johnson said.

"If you're unsure, come along to a drill night. The best way to get knowledge is by asking, don't be scared."

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