Staffing of Rotherham's second night-time fire engine to be reviewed

The second engine has not been staffed since spring 2017, under a decision made by the region’s fire authority four years earlier.

The vehicle stayed at Rotherham fire station on Fitzwilliam Road, but is only staffed on an “on call” basis at night, because of austerity budget cuts.

Now more firefighters are being recruited by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, it has given hope that the second engine could return to full cover.

Cllr Simon Burnett, Conservatives, asked at last week’s full Rotherham Council meeting whether the amount of new housing and warehouses being built in the borough would mean the second shift being needed permanently at night.

Cllr Ken Wyatt, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority member, said: “Currently, the service is preparing for a new Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). As part of this process, a full fire cover review in South Yorkshire will be conducted.

“Any reintegration of a permanent second shift allocation in Rotherham would be based on overall risk.

“Risk is dynamic. I’m sure that incident data, intelligence, community risk profile, industrial risk, etc, changes over time. As we know, nothing stays still.

“The service considers risk across the whole service when looking at resource allocation, and any such change would be determined by the fire cover review being planned as part of the CRMP.”

In September 2018, RMBC’s ruling Labour group amended a Ukip motion called for the second pump’s full reinstatement by saying they would support the call when resources allowed.