Fire Industry News for December 2023

Fire officers in Sheffield are asking local students not to cook while drunk in winter and, instead, help keep fire engines free for more serious emergencies. The plea follows the Government’s recent announcement that pubs must now close at 10 pm, which firefighters feel could prompt an increase in home drinking, cooking, and parties. increase in callouts They say that this, in turn, could lead to an increase in callouts to student accommodation across the city, something South Yorkshir...

Kind-hearted fire cadets have been showered with praise after delivering Christmas gifts to care home residents across Barnsley. 200 presents The young people, who are based out of Cudworth and Dearne fire stations, funded the gifts with £600 they raised through donations and the sale of handmade Christmas cards. They delivered around 200 presents in total to residents at four different care homes within the Barnsley district, dancing and singing along the way. Then, with their first ac...

A Sheffield man is attempting to ‘run’ between Calais and London in a bid to raise cash and awareness for refugees. Steve Kay, aged 36, has already clocked up 50 miles in his 108-mile mission to support the British Red Cross, which offers support, food, and hygiene to refugees and people seeking asylum. vital lifeline Many refugees are forced to flee war-torn countries and are left with nothing" Steve Kay, who works in the ICT team at South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, said, &ldq...

South Yorkshire’s fire service presented its latest plans for keeping local people safe next week including proposals for how quickly it should respond to different types of emergency. get to all emergencies South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue says it will still aim to attend every single 999 call as quickly as it possibly can, but that having a set of published response times will make it more accountable to local people, help it to improve its service, and bring them in line with most ot...

Six fire stations across South Yorkshire are recruiting for on-call firefighters, with anyone interested urged to act quickly before the current recruitment window closes. Recruits are needed at Penistone, Stocksbridge, Askern, Rossington, Birley, and Dearne to help crews there respond to emergency calls and carry out important prevention work. Register for recruitment Anyone interested is urged to register their interest on the service’s website. Information about the next steps will t...

South Yorkshire’s fire service will present its latest plans for keeping local people safe next week including proposals for how quickly it should respond to different types of emergencies. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service says it will still aim to attend every single 999 call as quickly as it possibly can, but that having a set of published response times will make it more accountable to local people, help it to improve its service, and bring them in line with most other service...

South Yorkshire’s fire service wants people to have their say on its work including how quickly it should respond to different types of emergency. SYFRS launched a consultation on how it delivers its service, with the results used to help plan its services over the next few years. people’s Views on response times Amongst the questions it wants people’s views on are the expected response times it should set for different incidents. The consultation will also ask people for t...

Firefighters across South Yorkshire are urging the county’s residents to sign up for their free smoke alarm reminder service, as part of a new campaign. They are backed by Rachael Shaw, a mum from Sheffield who had her home in Parsons Cross destroyed by fire earlier in 2020. electrical fire Rachael, her partner, and her daughter were in bed one night in April when working smoke alarms alerted them to an electrical fire in the living room below. The fire had developed quickly and thick...

Work has started this week on a brand new, energy-efficient station for firefighters in Barnsley. The existing 60-year-old, three-storey building on Broadway, Kingstone is being demolished after it had reached the end of its operational life. It’s being replaced with a new two-floor, three-bay facility on the same site. A separate multi-use facility is planned to be built on the same site, which will host the service’s award-winning Princes Trust Team Program initiative, as well as...

Firefighters say a push to reduce garden fires during the national lockdown has been a huge success, despite the period being the driest in recent history. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service saw a ‘huge’ spike in garden-related fires toward the end of March this year, with people opting to burn waste in the absence of waste recycling centers. This prompted the service to launch its ‘Take The Pledge’ garden fire initiative – during which officers urged people...

The family of an ‘amazing lad’ who died after jumping in a lake is calling for people to stay out of open water this summer. Taylor Matthews, known as Tay, tragically passed away after jumping into the water at Skelbrooke Quarry, from a bank around 30ft high, in July 2018. The inquest into his death ruled that Tay died from immersion, with his body instantly shutting down due to the cold water. And now, as part of South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s new Dying For A D...

The amazing staff at the heart of championing the role of women in the fire service have been recognized as part of a major national awards scheme. Winners of the fire sector’s ‘Women In The Fire Service’ awards include both men and women who have developed, encouraged, and reinforced the role of women in the sector. Women In The Fire Service UK Women continue to be underrepresented in the UK fire and rescue service, with only six percent of operational firefighters being fe...

The number of house fires in South Yorkshire is the lowest it has been for 10 years, the county’s fire service has revealed. Figures published by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue on Wednesday 10 June, show that firefighters attended 472 accidental dwelling fires during the last financial year – 2019/20. 13% reduction That is a 13 percent reduction on the previous year – 2018/19 during which there were 542 such incidents, and is a 29 percent reduction on the 664 attended...

South Yorkshire’s fire service is seeking to remind people that sprinklers save lives, as part of a national ‘Think Sprinkler’ awareness campaign. The message comes after a retrofitted system stopped a chip pan fire, which could otherwise have seriously hurt two sleeping occupants and destroyed their Doncaster flat, in its tracks earlier in 2020. £1million sprinkler fund It also comes only months after the service revealed that a £1million sprinkler fund, pu...

Staff within South Yorkshire’s fire control room, who take the fire service’s 999 emergency calls have been praised by the county’s Chief Fire Officer after a recent flat fire in Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK). Firefighters were mobilized to the blaze on Wensley Green, Sheffield, at 10.19 am on Friday 1 May with a man understood to be trapped and a bedroom well alight. Immediate rescue As the crews traveled to the flat, from Elm Lane and Central fire stations, they were give...

Property fires across South Yorkshire look to have dropped by almost a quarter during lockdown, according to the county’s fire service. 23% reduction The reduction, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue says, is pleasing with firefighters expecting a slight increase due to large amounts of people spending more time at home. Latest figures show that crews attended 157 primary fire incidents across Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, and Barnsley, between 23 March and 23 April. This, when compar...

Firefighters across South Yorkshire are asking people to pledge not to have a garden fire during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This latest plea comes as South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue saw a huge spike in garden fires during the last week in March, a 161 percent increase compared to a normal week. Impact of air pollution The service has also been contacted by several residents who have found it hard to physically leave their homes to exercise, due to the smoke coming from local garden fire...

A delivery of personal protective equipment which arrived in South Yorkshire yesterday, is now on its way to social care teams across the county. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of kit including aprons, gloves, and masks were delivered to South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s training center in Sheffield, UK yesterday afternoon (Monday, 6 April).  It was there that military planners and fire and rescue service staff broke down the supplies and delivered them to the local authorities in...

Yorkshire Ambulance Service welcomes additional COVID-19 support from fire and rescue colleagues. Firefighter colleagues from the region’s four fire and rescue services will be joining the Yorkshire Ambulance Service to provide additional support during the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. The 48 volunteers (12 from each fire and rescue service – North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and Humberside) will be carrying out tasks including driving ambulances and othe...

South Yorkshire’s firefighters are calling on people across the county to use ‘common sense’ when lighting garden fires during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. increase in garden fire call-outs The plea from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue comes as they, and other fire services nationally, have seen an increase in garden fire call-outs over the last two weeks. These incidents, they say, could potentially slow their response to a more serious incident and hamper their ability...

Much like other services across the country, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service’s community safety activity currently looks different from normal. This is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted on its ability to deliver home safety visits, safe and well checks, school visits, and station-based events. The joint police and fire - Lifewise Centre is also closed, until further notice, and fire station community rooms are no longer being used by their partner agencies....

South Yorkshire’s firefighters will be able to deliver food and drive ambulances to support their communities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This comes following an unprecedented national agreement that has been struck by fire chiefs, national employers, and representative bodies such as the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). responding to emergency incidents Crews will also be able to retrieve dead bodies, as part of the deal, while continuing to do their core duty of responding to emer...

SYFRS is launching a poster drawing competition for youngsters and is giving away a load of LEGO prizes that are up for grabs. It’ll be sharing as many entries as possible with their staff to help keep spirits up, too. All SYFRS wants youngsters to do is get a piece of A4 paper and draw a firefighter, fire engine, or fire station. safety messages The drawings must also include at least one of the below safety messages: Don’t forget about cooking! Don’t leave clothes near...

SYFRS launches a poster drawing competition for youngsters and they are offering a load of LEGO prizes that are up for grabs. It’ll be sharing as many entries as possible with staff to help keep spirits up, too. Safety messages All SYFRS wants youngsters to do is get a piece of A4 paper and draw a firefighter, fire engine, or fire station. They must also include at least one of the below safety messages: Don’t forget about cooking! Don’t leave clothes near electric heater...

South Yorkshire’s firefighters are calling on people to take extra steps to keep themselves safe from fire, following the Government’s recent announcements on social distancing. They say that, with thousands across the county expected to either self-isolate, work from home, or generally stay away from others, it’s never been more important to think about fire safety. And despite the fact that crews are continuing to respond to 999 emergencies as normal, senior fire officers ar...

A joint fire and police safety team has won a major national award. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and South Yorkshire Police’s joint community safety department won the award for Best Emergency Services Collaboration at the Excellence in Fire & Emergency Awards in London. The accolade comes a little more than a year after the fire and police community safety staff were brought together to form a fresh team with the shared aim of keeping people safe. High-profile activities High-...

Analysis of the home safety checks carried out by fire service staff has revealed overwhelming resident satisfaction levels, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue can reveal. According to the service, which has completed 15,000 such checks so far, 96 percent of people are left satisfied following one of the visits. research findings The research has also shown that, while 55 percent of people rated their home safe before a home safety check, 97 percent rated it safe after the check, a 42 perc...

Fire officers are calling on Sheffield students to familiarise themselves with evacuation procedures, after a blaze involving student accommodation in Bolton. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service has already written to universities asking them to consider any implications from the fire, which saw around 200 residents evacuated from The Cube. evacuation strategies Assistant Chief Fire Officer - Steve Helps, said, “It’s too early to tell what caused the fire in Bolton to spread...

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority (SYFRA) has appointed a new Chief Fire Officer. Alex Johnson was appointed following a selection process which included a written application and panel interview with members of the Fire Authority. Alex joined South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue as Assistant Chief Fire Officer in 2017, before being promoted to Deputy Chief Fire Officer. She’d previously served with Derbyshire Fire & Rescue for more than 25 years, having joined as a firefi...

The fire service is changing the way it responds to automatic fire alarms in some types of commercial premises. What do businesses need to know? South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue will no longer automatically mobilize fire engines to automatic fire alarms in some types of commercial premises from 6 January 2020. Currently, SYFRS automatically sends fire engines to the premises the moment a fire alarm goes off and the signal is passed, by a receiving centre, onto 999 control operators. Ins...