West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service


The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is the county-wide, statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is administered by a joint authority of 22 people who are appointed annually from the five metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire, known as the Fire and Rescue Authority.
West Yorkshire covers an area of approximately which includes remote moorland, rural villages, large towns and cities as well as Leeds Bradford International Airport. The fire and rescue service's headquarters are located at Oakroyd Hall, Bradford Road, Birkenshaw, Bradford. There is also a large training centre at Birkenshaw used by other authorities besides West Yorkshire.
In 2006, the service was listed as being the fourth largest in England with 1,600 wholetime firefighters and 199 retained. It has 47 fire appliances based at 41 stations, sub divided into five districts; Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.

History

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. 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. At its inception, the WYF&RS had 52 stations across the five districts.
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. Previous to that, the WRFS hq was at Huddersfield, though the WRFS training centre had moved to Birkenshaw in 1961.
After a number of firefighter deaths at notable fires in the 1990s, 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.
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.

Fire stations

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service operates 41 fire stations including the headquarters and training centre at Birkenshaw.
Station NameStation NumberDistrictCrewedUnitsnotes
Bingley41BradfordWholetime1 WRL, 1 WRU
Birkenshaw75KirkleesOakroyd Hall houses the headquarters with additional training facilities located on the same site.
Bradford40BradfordWholetime1 WRT, 1 CARP
Castleford82WakefieldWholetime1 CARP
Cleckheaton62KirkleesWholetime1 WRL, 1 TRU, 1 PM,
Cookridge22LeedsWholetime1 WrT 1 PM with HVPU PODWYFRS plan to merge Cooksridge and Moortown fire stations on one site.
Dewsbury83KirkleesWholetime1 WRL, 1 WRT 1 PM +MDU,
Fairweather Green42BradfordWholetime1 WRL,
Featherstone84WakefieldRetained1 WRL, 1 Command Unit Lite
Garforth23LeedsDAY CREWING1 WrT
Halifax64CalderdaleWholetime1 CARP
Holmfirth66KirkleesRetained1 4x4 WrL, 1x WFU
Huddersfield60KirkleesWholetime1 Wrt. 1 CARP
Hunslet25LeedsWholetime1 WrL, 1 WrT. 2x PM bulk foam
Ilkley45BradfordRetained1 WrL 1 X PWU
Illingworth67CalderdaleWholetime1 WRL
Keighley46BradfordWholetime1 WRL, 1 WFU, 1 Rwrl
Killingbeck32LeedsWholetime1 WrL, 1 WrT
Leeds20LeedsWholetime1 WrT, 1 WrL, 1 ALP, 1 Flood Respone Unit
Meltham69KirkleesRetained1 WRL,
Mirfield87KirkleesRetained1 WRL, 1PM + Hose Layer Unit
Moortown26LeedsWholetime1 WRLWYFRS plan to merge Cooksridge and Moortown fire stations on one site. Outline permission to redevelop the site for housing was approved in June 2017.
Morley27LeedsWholetime1 WRL
Mytholmroyd70CalderdaleRetained1 WRL,
Normanton88WakefieldWholetime1 WRL
Odsal47BradfordWholetime1 WRL 1 PM, 1 ISU POD, 1 ISU SUPPORT VAN
Ossett89WakefieldWholetime1 WRL 1 Flood Response Unit,
Otley48LeedsRetained1 WRL 1 PM + Hose Layer Unit
Pontefract90WakefieldWholetime1 WRL, 1 CSUOpened in 2012 to replace the older Pontefract station with Knottingley fire station closing completely.
Rastrick61CalderdaleWholetime1 WRL, 1 WRU
Rawdon50LeedsDay Crewed1 WRL
Rothwell91LeedsDay Crewed1 WRL
Shipley53BradfordWholetime1 WRLShipley fire station moved to a new site in May 2017 on Valley Road, closer to Bradford. The new station replaced the old Shipley fire station and Idle fire station, which closed completely.
Silsden52BradfordRetained1 WRL
Skelmanthorpe71KirkleesRetained1 WRL 1 Personal Welfare Unit
Slaithwaite72KirkleesRetained1 RWRL 4x4
South Kirkby92WakefieldDay Crewing /Close Call1 WRLReplaced South Elmsall fire station and Hemsworth fire station in 2015.
Stanningley31LeedsWholetime1 WRL 1 HVP, 1 FRU, 1 FRU Support VanOpened in February 2003 to replace the two closed stations at Bramley and Pudsey.
Todmorden74CalderdaleDay crewed1 4X4 RP, 1 WFU + ARGO CAT
Wakefield80WakefieldWholetime1 CARPTempoary 1 bay station until the new one is built
Wetherby29LeedsDay crewed1 WRL

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.
Wholetime 2-2-4 0800-1900hrs
Day Crewed 4-4 0800-1700 - Todmorden, Wetherby
Day Crewing 2 on, 2 0ff, 3 on, 1700-0800 respond from home
Day Crewed Close Call, 2on 2 0ff 3 on then respond from accommodation that is available

Station closures

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. 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. Haworth fire station, which was staffed by retained firefighters, was closed permanently in 2014.
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. 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.

Notable incidents