Response times for fire incidents have risen to a decade-long high in fire services across England.
Home Office data for the year ending March 2023 shows a year-on-year rise in the time taken for the first fire vehicle to arrive at an incident.
The average total response time to primary fires in England was nine minutes and 13 seconds, the longest time seen since comparable records began.
Since last year, there has been an increase of 23 seconds in the average first appliance response time to primary fires, where people or property are at risk. The largest increase was in primary outdoor fires with an increase of 1 minute 12 seconds.
The average total response time to secondary fires (smaller outdoor fires) in England has risen to 9 minutes and 47 seconds.
North Yorkshire has been hit the hardest, with response times rising to 13 minutes and nine seconds.
Firefighters in the region responded to 157 more fires than the year before, with fewer resources.
We’re seeing firefighters pushed beyond safe limits’
The report acknowledges the impact of record-breaking heatwaves last year. Primary outdoor fire incidents “increased by 45% from the previous year, reflecting the hot dry summer”.
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack has pointed to cuts as vital context for the deterioration in response times.
“We’re seeing firefighters pushed beyond acceptable and safe limits, responding to incidents across increasingly large areas”, he said.
“Meanwhile, the climate emergency is resulting in more frequent and extreme weather events and wildfires.”
One in five firefighters has been cut since 2010, with fire engines taken off the run and fire stations closed across the country.
In a recent report, the London Fire Brigade admitted that while wildfires destroyed homes across London last summer, 39 of the city’s fire engines were sitting empty without enough firefighters to crew them. This slowed down response times while the fires spread, leaving firefighters battling huge blazes under enormous pressure and without sufficient resources.
Response times do not capture the impact of under-crewing. In several rural areas, chief fire officers are putting lives at risk by sending crews of only three firefighters to incidents. Even if they arrive quickly, firefighters then are forced to stand by and wait for another fire crew to arrive.
The FBU is calling on Westminster to “take responsibility for this negligence and reverse the cuts of recent years”.
