West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

The brigade was formed in 1974 when the unitary county of West Yorkshire was created and was an amalgamation of smaller brigades across the county.[7] These included the West Riding County Fire Service, Bradford City Fire Brigade, Dewsbury County Borough Fire Brigade, Halifax County Borough Fire Brigade, Huddersfield County Borough Fire, Leeds City Fire Brigade and Wakefield City Fire Brigade.[7] At its inception, the WYF&RS had 52 stations across the five districts.[8]

The service's headquarters is at Oakroyd Hall in Birkenshaw; the hall is a grade II listed building that has housed the headquarters since 1964 when it was the hq for the West Riding Fire Service (WRFS).[9][10] Previous to that, the WRFS hq was at Huddersfield,[11] though the WRFS training centre had moved to Birkenshaw in 1961.[12]

After a number of firefighter deaths at notable fires in the 1990s (Gillender street in Bow, East London [1991] and the Sun Valley poultry factory fire in Hereford [1993]), coupled with the publishing of the Fennell Report into the King's Cross fire of 1987, WYFRS developed an incident command policy that encompassed an at-incident dynamic risk assessment and an organisational structure assessment for major fires. This policy was driven forward by central government and after some refinement was adopted in 1999.[13]

In April 2014, the service's emergency call response centre was moved from the Birkenshaw site to a location in Leeds which also subsequently became the call centre for the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, in the event of a control room failure at SYFRS control in Sheffield.[14]

Rover 200 being used for Fire training at Wetherby Fire Station in 2015.

Kirkstall Road fire station

Wetherby fire station

Halifax fire station

Otley fire station

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service operates 41 fire stations including the headquarters and training centre at Birkenshaw.[15]

Wholetime consists of working two days, two nights and four days off. Day crewing is a day orientated shift pattern and close call is where the firefighter works a set number of hours annually, so the shift patterns are managed locally. purposes. Ranks of station manager and above can work a Flexi duty system, with the remainder of the staff being on a retained basis.[23] Wholetime 2-2-4 0800-1900hrs (Bingley, Bradford, Cleckheaton, Halifax, Illingworth, Fairweather Green, Shipley, Leeds, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Moortown, Cookridge, Dewsbury, Ossett, Odsal, Pontefract, Rastrick, Stanningley, Killingbeck) Day Crewed 4-4 0800-1700 - Todmorden, Wetherby Day Crewing 2 on, 2 0ff, 3 on, (0800-1700) 1700-0800 respond from home (Garforth, Morley, Rothwell, Rawdon) Day Crewed Close Call, 2on 2 0ff 3 on (0800-1700) then respond from accommodation that is available (Castleford, Normanton and South Kirkby)

Stanks fire station at Swarcliffe (closed 2015)

Gipton fire station (closed 2015)

Killingbeck fire station (seen under construction) opened in 2015 to replace Stanks and Gipton

In recent years the service has sought to rationalise its stations. In 2013, Marsden fire station was closed, while in 2015 Gipton and Stanks fire stations in East Leeds were replaced with a single fire station between the two sites at Killingbeck.[24] Of the eight firefighters based at Marsden, three left the service, whilst five transferred to the retained station at Slaithwaite. The fire appliance from Marsden was moved as a cover fire engine at Huddersfield.[25] Haworth fire station, which was staffed by retained firefighters, was closed permanently in 2014.[26]

In the same year, Batley and Dewsbury's fire stations were merged into a single site in Dewsbury and Brighouse and Elland fire stations were also amalgamated into one fire station in Rastrick that is nearer to the M62.[27] the stations at Otley and Rawdon were due to be closed and replaced with a combined site located in the Menston area, but these plans were abandoned after a suitable site could not be found.[28][29]

• The Bradford City stadium fire - 11 May 1985; a fire at valley Parade, the home of ground of Bradford City Football Club which killed 56 people.[30]
• The Allied Colloids plant in Low Moor - 21 July 1992; a large fire at the chemical plant involved over 150 firefighters and precipitated the closure of the adjacent M62 motorway.[31]
• The Hickson & Welsh plant Castleford - 21 September 1992; more than 100 firefighters and 17 engines were required to tackle the fire.[32]
• The Speedibake Bakery Wakefield - 1 February 2020; more than 20 Pumps and 2 aerials with specialist vehicles across the county required to tackle a fire that broke out at the bakery causing significant closures nearby, at its height around 140 firefighters in attendance.[33]

• Fire service in the United Kingdom
• List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty

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• Official website