South Yorkshire makes top ten for 'fastest firefighter reaction times'

Crews from SYFR ranked ninth with a time of eight minutes and 50 seconds, just ahead of Hertfordshire with eight minutes and 55 seconds.

West Yorkshire fell outside the top ten at 11 with nine minutes and five seconds.

The top spot, according to the research by www.claims.co.uk, was taken by Tyne and Wear with six minutes 53 seconds.

At the other end of the scale, North Yorkshire had the slowest response time, at 12 minutes and 37 seconds.

Home Office data (quarter ending September 2023) was used to obtain the average call handling times, drive times, and crew turnout times for fire types including primary, dwellings, other buildings, other outdoors, and road vehicles.

The average of the times for each response and fire type was calculated to determine the ranking.

A spokesperson from www.claims.co.uk said of the findings: “It’s fascinating to see which areas of the UK have the fastest firefighter response times, as it’s certainly reassuring for residents to know that they’ll receive help quickly in an emergency.”

SYFR area manager Simon Dunker, said: “Like every fire service, we always aim to attend every emergency incident as fast as we possibly can.

“Fire service response times can vary across different parts of the country for a variety of reasons, but we have robust local response standards and performance measures in place to ensure we are providing the best possible service to the people of South Yorkshire.”