Fire service response time in Northumberland slower than the national average

Across the country, the average response time in the year ending to March was nine minutes and 13 seconds — the longest seen since comparable statistics became available.

The Fire Brigades Union criticised the Government for not investing enough in the services as “every second counts in a fire”.

In the areas covered by the Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, people had to wait for an average of 11 minutes and 52 seconds for firefighters to respond to incidents. This includes time spent on the phone reporting the incident, the crew’s preparation, and their journey time.

The response time was about the same as the year before.

It ranked 40th out of the 44 fire services in England for response times.

The average time it took the service to handle calls was one minute and seven seconds.

The fire service attended 431 primary fires in the year to March, which are the most serious with a threat to life or property. This was 33 fewer than the year before.

Across England, the number of primary fires saw a 5.1% rise compared to the year before, as the warm dry weather last summer caused more wildfires.

A National Fire Chiefs Council spokesperson said: “In recent years response times across all incident types have been gradually increasing as the range of incident types attended by FRSs has grown and resources have been targeted at higher risks such as fires in the home, where most deaths and injuries from fire occur.

“Attendance times for fires in the home have remained relatively static over the last 10 years.”

There were 140 dwelling fires attended in Northumberland in the year to March and 150 road vehicle fires.

Ben Selby, FBU assistant general secretary said: “Firefighters do everything they can to keep the public safe, but with fewer firefighters, fewer fire stations and fewer fire engines, it is no wonder that response times are deteriorating.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to keep us safe, and overall fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.6 billion in 2023-24."