The HM Queen Elizabeth II meets Humberside Fire and Rescue Service 1987

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) is the

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

fire and rescue service A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish conflagration, hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisd ...

covering the area of what was the county of

Humberside Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, West ...

(1974–1996), but now consists of the

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton ...

and

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

in northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters

Humberside Fire Brigade was formed in 1974 as a result of the

Fire Services Act 1947 The Fire Services Act 1947 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that reorganised fire services in the United Kingdom. It disbanded the National Fire Service and returned the responsibility for running fire services to local authorities ...

stating that all areas must have an official fire service; the brigade would later change its name to Humberside Fire and Rescue Service to reflect its expanded role in emergency cover after the county boundary changes on 1974. When Humberside County Council was abolished in 1995, a parliamentary combination order came into effect, establishing Humberside Fire Authority (the current ruling body of Humberside Fire Brigade) with control of all brigade personnel, equipment and premises. This is a combined fire authority, which is financed by the constituent councils of

East Riding of Yorkshire Council East Riding of Yorkshire Council is the local authority of the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government serv ...

, Kingston upon Hull City Council,

North Lincolnshire Council North Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North Lincolnshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is one of fifty five unitary authorities. It provides a full rang ...

and

North East Lincolnshire Council North East Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North East Lincolnshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It was established following the abolition of Humberside ...

. In 2007, HFRS featured on a

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

show entitled ''Women on Fire''. Cameras followed two female firefighters during a 16-day intensive training course to allow them to become retained firefighters for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

Sledmere Sledmere is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Driffield on the B1253 road. The village lies in a civil parish which is also officially called "Sledmere" by the Office for National Statistics, although th ...

fire station was closed in 2008 as part of cost-saving measures introduced by HFRS. On 1 January 2013, plans were submitted to Hull City Council expressing Humberside Fire and Rescue Service's intention to replace Clough Road fire station with a new £3.9million facility on the existing site. Planning permission was granted by Hull City Council in April 2013, and the new station became operational in July 2015. Two new fire stations in central Hull and Brough were opened in 2017, and in 2018, the £9 million Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre (ICC), part of which contains a new fire station for the East Hull area, was opened. HFRS plans to extend

Hornsea Hornsea is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The settlement dates to at least the early medieval period. The town was expanded in the Victorian era with the coming of the Hull ...

fire station to add a new appliance bay accommodating one of two new Rapid Intervention Vehicles acquired from

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

in 2022. In 2016, in line with other fire and police force mergers, a proposal was put forward that Humberside Fire and Rescue merge with the

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the seven districts of administrative county of North Yorkshire: Craven, Harrogate, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby; as well ...

. However, the proposal was not backed by the leaders of county councils and emergency commissioners in the Humberside operating area, and so the merger proposal was shelved.

Performance

In 2021/2022, every fire and rescue service in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

was subjected to a statutory inspection by

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales, and since ...

(HIMCFRS). The inspection investigated how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:

Fire stations and appliances

HFRS operates 31

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...

s. These stations are strategically located to provide suitable coverage for the region. Nine of these stations are wholetime, three stations are wholetime and

retained In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS Firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to em ...

, and 19 stations are retained only. The 31 stations are divided into four Community Protection Units (CPUs), with each one covering a different area. The

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

of HFRS are located on the western outskirts of Hull on Summergroves Way near the boundary with

Hessle Hessle () is a town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area consisting of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of ...

. This building houses the majority of the service's administration and support services including Stores, IT, Health & Safety, Training etc. In 2005, Humberside Fire and Rescue ordered two Combined Aerial Rescue Pump (CARP) fire appliances, manufactured by

TVAC TVAC (The Vehicle Application Centre) was a British company based in Leyland, Lancashire that performed chassis conversions and assembled bodies for commercial vehicles, refuse trucks and fire engines. History In 1996 TVAC approached Plastisol ...

on the

Mercedes-Benz Econic The Mercedes-Benz Econic is a low-entry truck introduced by Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercede ...

chassis. The

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue is the statutory fire and rescue service for the area of South Yorkshire, England. The service covers the areas of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. In 2020, Chris Kirby was appointed its Chief Fire ...

also made an order for four similar appliances, with all six orders totalling £3 million. Shortly after their 2007 delivery, however, various mechanical defects emerged with both Humberside and South Yorkshire's CARP appliances, including them being too heavy for UK roads. This caused the appliances to be regularly taken off the road, with members of the

Fire Brigades Union The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom for wholetime firefighters (including officers up to chief fire officer / firemaster), retained firefighters and emergency control room staff. History The first recorded inst ...

later refusing to operate them. Humberside's second order for a CARP appliance was subsequently cancelled, with TVAC going out of business shortly after reports of defects began to emerge.

Notable incidents

Humbrol Humbrol Limited is a British brand and former manufacturer of paints, solvents, and other accessories for scale model kits and toys. In the past, Humbrol produced under its own brand and the Airfix, Sky Marks, Young Scientist, 1st Gear, High Sp ...

factory, Hull 2 November 1988; started by the ignition of

acetone Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly volatile and flammable liquid with a characteristic pungent odour. Acetone is miscib ...

spilled from a forklift, a large fire and explosions at the Humbrol paint factory in east Hull claimed the life of one employee and injured five others, requiring 125 Humberside firefighters and 25 appliances to extinguish the fire. *Royal Station Hotel, Hull 7 October 1990; up to 180 Humberside firefighters were on scene at a large fire at the Royal Station Hotel, caused by an electrical fault. Eleven of the 140 guests staying in the hotel were taken to hospital, and the building, which adjoins

Hull Paragon Interchange Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport interchange providing rail, bus and coach services located in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The G. T. Andrews-designed station was originally named ''Paragon Station'', and together ...

, was completely destroyed. *Bartoline, Beverley 23 May 2003; Up to 150 HFRS firefighters and 28 appliances were deployed to a large fire and explosions from paint and oil storage tanks at the Bartoline factory on Swinemoor Industrial Estate in

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

. The fire, which destroyed the factory and threatened to spread to adjoining buildings, was brought under control with no injuries reported. * 2018 United Kingdom wildfires JuneJuly 2018; HFRS fire crews were deployed to aid

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

firefighters in tackling major moorland fires on

Saddleworth Moor Saddleworth Moor is a moorland in North West England. Reaching more than above sea level, it is in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park. It is crossed by the A635 road and the Pennine Way passes to its eastern side. Geography ...

and Winter Hill. *Bridgewood UK plastics factory,

2425 November 2021; A large fire and explosions, believed to have been started accidentally, destroyed the Bridgewood UK plastics factory on the Priory Park industrial estate adjacent to the town of Hessle. Over 150 HFRS firefighters and 14 appliances were deployed to tackle the fire, which destroyed 300 tonnes of plastic and also destroyed a nearby electrical substation. All employees of the factory were accounted for, and the fire was largely extinguished over 24 hours later.

Gallery

File:New Hull Central Fire Station.jpg, H01 Central Station File:New Clough Road Fire Station.jpg, H02 Clough Road Station File:Calvert Lane Fire Station, Hull - geograph.org.uk - 889665.jpg, H03 Calvert Lane Station File:Beverley Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 820569.jpg, H04 Beverley Station File:Brough Fire Station.jpg, H05 Brough Station File:Market Weighton Fire Station.jpg, H06 Market Weighton Station File:Pocklington Fire Station 2021.jpg, H07 Pocklington Station File:New Hull East Fire Station.jpg, H08 East Hull Station File:Bransholme fire station - geograph.org.uk - 1394833.jpg, H09 Bransholme Station File:Bridlington Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 1212024.jpg, H10 Bridlington Station File:Driffield fire station - geograph.org.uk - 1394803.jpg, H11 Driffield Station File:Hornsea Fire Station.jpg, H13 Hornsea fire station File:Withernsea fire station - geograph.org.uk - 1394848.jpg, H14 Withernsea Station File:Patrington Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 595043.jpg, H15 Patrington Station File:Preston Fire Station.jpg, H16 Preston Station File:Peaks Lane Fire Station, Grimsby.jpg, H17 Peaks Lane Station File:Cromwell Road Station.jpg, H18 Cromwell Road Station File:Cleethorpes Fire Station.jpg, H19 Cleethorpes Station File:Immingham East Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 1133155.jpg, H20 Immingham East Station File:Waltham Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 125720.jpg, H21 Waltham Station File:Barton Fire Station, Holydyke, Barton Upon Humber - geograph.org.uk - 1767719.jpg, H22 Barton upon Humber Station File:Scunthorpe Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 554476.jpg, H23 Scunthorpe Station File:Goole Fire Station.jpg, H24 Goole Station File:Snaith fire station - geograph.org.uk - 1394108.jpg, H25 Snaith Station File:Crowle fire station - geograph.org.uk - 885053.jpg, H26 Crowle Station File:Epworth fire station - geograph.org.uk - 1631830.jpg, H27 Epworth Station File:Kirton in Lindsey Fire Station.jpg, H28 Kirton in Lindsey Station File:Winterton Fire Station with new exterior.jpg, H29 Winterton Station File:Howden Fire Station.jpg, H30 Howden Station File:Brigg Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 231171.jpg, H31 Brigg Station, Rear Door File:Immingham West Fire Station, Killingholme - geograph.org.uk - 155041.jpg, H32 Immingham West Station

References

External links

*
Humberside Fire and Rescue Service
at

HMICFRS His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales, and since ...

{{UK fire service Fire and rescue services of England Humberside