| Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service | |
|---|---|
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service area |
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| Coverage | |
| Area | Northern Ireland |
| Size | 13,843 km² |
| Population | 1,710,300 |
| Operations | |
| HQ | Lisburn |
| Staff | 2,230 |
| Stations | 68 |
| Co-responder | No |
| Chief Fire Officer | Peter Craig |
| Deputy Chief Fire Officer | Chris Kerr |
| Website | Official Site |
| Fire authority | The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board |
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) (formerly Northern Ireland Fire Brigade) is the statutory fire and rescue service for Northern Ireland. The NIFRS is overseen by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board, which in turn is subordinate to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. NIFRS has a workforce of around 2,230 personnel.[1]
NIFRS serves the entire population of Northern Ireland, an area of over 5,500 square miles (14,000 km2) with a population of 1.71 million people.
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There are 68 fire stations in Northern Ireland, seven of which are full-time and seven are wholetime/retained. 7 are variable crewed between wholetime and retain firefighters during the day with retain firefighters only at night. 46 stations are retained, and one (on Rathlin Island) is crewed by volunteers. The Service is organised into four 'Area Commands': Western, Southern, Northern and Eastern. The Eastern Area Command covers Greater Belfast.
Emergency cover is provided by a current establishment of:
NIFRS Training Centre is located at Boucher Crescent, South Belfast and headquarters is in Lisburn, County Antrim.
NIFRS' current operational fleet of fire engines consists of:[2]
NIFRS firefighters are trained to deal with all types of fire incidents, as well as traffic collisions, building collapses, and various specialist rescues. The Service is also the enforcing authority for fire safety legislation.
As with other fire and rescue services in the United Kingdom, the NIFRS has been the target of frequent attacks while attending incidents. In 2010/11, the Service recorded 145 'hostile crowd' incidents without injury or damage, 27 cases of damage to fire engines, two cases of injury to a firefighter and 4 cases of combined injury to firefighter and vehicle damage.[3]
Until recently, the organisation's name was the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade.[4] The Brigade lost a number of firemen during the Troubles, including one shot while tackling a blaze in 1973 set during the Ulster Workers' Council strike.
In 2010/11, NIFRS received 48,632 emergency calls, of which it mobilised to 30,784. The breakdown of these mobilised calls were:
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