Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service
 |
|
| Operational area | |
|---|---|
| Country |
 England
|
| County |
 Tyne and Wear
|
| Agency overview | |
| Employees | 1,151 |
| Chief Fire Officer | Tom Capeling |
| Facilities and equipment | |
| Stations | 17 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, formerly Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade, is the fire and rescue service for the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. The service provides emergency fire cover to the five comprising metropolitan boroughs of Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and South Tyneside, serving a population of 1.09 million people and a total geographical area of 538 square kilometres. Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority is responsible for the running of the service, as well as the publication of performance indicators in accordance with its legal obligations. In February 2012, Tom Capeling was appointed Chief Fire Officer of the service after his predecessor, Iain Bathgate, retired after serving four years in the position.
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service was established as Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1974 as a result of changes to area boundaries within the north east of England. Essentially, a fire service did exist through delivery of several smaller fire services established under the Fire Brigades Act 1938 which made it a requirement for local authorities to provide fire cover to their area, although the smaller services were never united as one service as they are today until 1974. During the second World War, all local fire services in the region and on a national level created under the 1938 legislation were nationalised to form the National Fire Service, remaining this way until the Fire Services Act 1947 which handed control back of fire cover back to local authorities in 1948. When the service was established in 1974, it brought together four small local fire services and parts of two others to form the service that exists today.
In June 2003, then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott submitted a white paper to Parliament outlining reforms to the Fire Service in the UK. Part of the reforms outlined included changing the name of fire services across the UK to 'Fire and Rescue Service', giving greater emphasis to the changing role of the fire service. In 2004, following further government publications, the name of the service was changed from Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade to Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, with post-2004 vehicle livery and all other parts of the service reflecting the name change. In 2006, the service had built six new fire stations under the Public Private Partnership initiative, replacing older fire stations that were in need of extensive upgrade; the service had also built a new headquarters in Washington to replace the previous headquarters on Pilgrim Street in the centre of Newcastle as well as a new Technical Services building. In 2011, the location for the new Sunderland North fire station in Fulwell was announced, with the station expected to be opened in late 2014 and replacing the current station nearby. In July 2014 Due to government budget cuts the fire and rescue service was forced to remove a frontline fire appliance from swalwell and one from wallsend fire station, May 2015 saw the introduction of 2 Targeted response vehicles to be based at Washington fire station, In September 2015 a further to targeted response vehicles would replace two fire appliances, one at Newcastle central and one at Sunderland central. Further cuts were implemented in October 2016 removing a further two fire appliances, one at West Denton and one at Hebburn.
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