The shortage of firefighters to tackle blazes is putting lives in danger, according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). Duncan Stewart-Ball, the union’s regional secretary for Wales, explained that the situation has become so severe that some rural stations are failing to respond at all, which means long waits as crews have to travel from other areas. In Wales, there are 146 fire stations, but over 70% of these, roughly 105, are staffed entirely by on-call firefighters. At the end of 2021, there were 328 vacancies for these positions across Wales’ three fire services. Unions estimate that, over the past decade, hundreds have left the service for good.
When Nat Eddleston, a self-confessed adrenaline junkie, joined the fire service, she believed it was the perfect fit for her. The 38-year-old from Conwy felt she was making a real difference in her community and saving lives in the process. However, like many paid volunteers across the UK who juggle these commitments with a full-time job and home life, she worked as an on-call firefighter. There are many firefighters like Nat who receive a yearly salary ranging from £2,700 to £3,600, plus an hourly rate for callouts. They can have any profession, from builders to care workers and stay-at-home parents, but they must reside and work within a few miles of their station and immediately attend callouts if required. It is a way of life that several firefighters confess is increasingly challenging to pair with modern life’s demands, shift work, and childcare.
Fire services in Wales attend fewer callouts each year than they did a decade ago, according to data seen by Wales Lives, partly because of work to educate people on fire safety. Yet, response times have increased almost every year between 2013 and 2022, with an average waiting time of 11 minutes 53 seconds in South Wales, where most full-time firefighters work. In north Wales, the average responder takes over 14 minutes to arrive at the fire, while the wait time in Mid and West Wales Fire Service is roughly 14 minutes and 16 seconds long. The FBU estimates that so many staff members have left the service in the past decade that they may have identified that “lives could have been lost” due to the decline in on-call firefighters.
Some on-call firefighters have focused on the impact on family life and work, leading to people abandoning on-call firefighting. Funeral director Andy Lambert, the Watch Manager at Conwy Fire Station, began work as an on-call firefighter over 30 years ago, and he said work commitments usually influenced people the most. All three of Wales’ fire services stated that on-call staff members are fundamental to their work; however, they admitted that recruiting and keeping them has become increasingly difficult around the world. Mid and West Wales Fire Service has stated that it is targeting recruitment and enhancing “training and development opportunities” to “significantly enhance” its on-call system. North Wales Fire Service has recently reviewed on-call firefighters’ experiences and has made “a few positive steps,” while South Wales Fire Service is working on initiatives and encouraging new applicants
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