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West Midlands Fire Service
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The West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) is the statutory fire and rescue service responsible for fire protection, prevention, intervention and emergency rescue in the West Midlands county in England.
The West Midlands Fire Service functions under the control of the "West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority" which is a joint-authority, made up of councillors from the seven local authorities in the West Midlands [1].
The service was created in 1974 when the West Midlands county came into being. Prior to its creation, each of the county boroughs in the West Midlands area (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Solihull, Walsall, Warley, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton) had their own fire brigade [1]. The largest of which was the City of Birmingham Fire Brigade. The WMFS was created by a merger of these, plus parts of Warwickshire Fire Brigade.
The service was originally headquartered in the former City of Birmingham Fire Brigade headquarters at Lancaster Circus which were opened on December 2, 1935 by the Duke of Kent. It is now a listed building. However, the service moved to a purpose built, modern headquarters on Vauxhall Road, Duddeston, at the end of July 2008.
Organisation
The brigade is run under the command of the Chief Fire Officer (Currently Frank Sheehan CBE, QFSM MI Fire E) and the Corporate Board, and provides emergency response from 41 strategically located fire stations, divided into nine Command Areas:
Six of the Command Areas are coterminous with the Metropolitan boroughs of the West Midlands county; Birmingham however is divided into three commands.
These are:
Fire stations
A cast-iron Birmingham Corporation fire-hydrant cover, from the time when the City Council was responsible for both the local fire service and water supply
The fire service has 40 fire stations. of which are all full time[2]
Fire appliances
West Midlands Fire Service operates over 60 front line fire engines, [3] mainly of the Dennis Sabre type. The service also operate a number of specialist aplliances such as hydraulic platforms.
References
See also
External links
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