Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service

The service employs approximately 900 firefighters and staff, with around 250 full-time firefighters. The county's 38 fire stations are allocated to one of three divisions (East, West and South). The majority of Lincolnshire is covered by retained duty staff (RDS), who attend on a call-out basis. The retained staff are supported by full-time firefighters (wholetime) based at 9 different stations around the county. They also offer specialist skills and equipment, such as rope/high-line rescue, water rescue, animal rescues etc. Lincolnshire firefighters have supported rescue efforts nationally, such as in the floods of 2007 and most recently the Berkshire flooding in 2014 and Cumbria/North Yorkshire floods of 2015. The headquarters are now part of a joint Police and Fire HQ based at the Lincolnshire Police Headquarters in Nettleham (Just outside of Lincoln). The county boasts its Waddington Training Facility located to the south of the city using a former part of the RAF Waddington site, allowing realistic training environments used by many other fire services and organisations.

Prior to 1974, when Lincolnshire was administratively three separate counties, there were three fire brigades for the geographic county, covering Kesteven, Holland and Lindsey, with Lindsey being the biggest, which formed in 1948. Grimsby had its own Grimsby Borough Fire Brigade. After 1974, much of the Lindsey Fire Brigade with Grimsby became part of Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, and still is today. Prior to 1974, this would have covered two large oil refineries at Immingham and other large fire risks - indeed the Flixborough disaster in June 1974, the largest civilian explosion in the UK, took place soon after the separation of counties in the new Humberside area, although the Lincolnshire Fire Service, in nearby Gainsborough, would have been called for assistance.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has 38 Fire Stations:

• Nine Wholetime Duty System Stations (WDS) - Manned by full-time firefighters either on a 24/7 shift system or 'Lincs Crewing System'. (explained below)
• 29 Retained Duty System Stations (RDS) - Manned by on-call firefighters.

Currently there is only one wholetime station (Lincoln South) that works the 24/7 shift system. This station has four watches (Red, Blue, Green and White) that work two days followed by two nights, and then have four rest days.

The other eight wholetime stations around the county now work the 'Lincolnshire Crewing System'. Each station has ten wholetime personnel which work their shifts so they are generally on duty for four days then with four rest days. The days they are on duty they provide wholetime night cover from purpose built living accommodation that is in close proximity to the station. Therefore, the first appliance is always crewed by wholetime personnel.

Each wholetime station in Lincolnshire also has an RDS (On-Call) attachment that crew the second appliances and support the WDS staff.

• WrLR - Water Ladder Rescue: P1/P2
• WSU - Welfare Support Unit
• ALP - Aerial Ladder Platform
• WRU - Water Rescue Unit
• RIB - Rigid Inflatable Boat
• RSU - Rescue Support Unit
• HVP/HVHL - High Volume Pump/High Volume Hose layer (*Shared on rolling basis between 3 stations throughout year to maintain competency)
• CRV - Co-Responder Vehicle (Working with East Midlands Ambulance Service)
• Amb - Fire Ambulance (Part of the Joint Ambulance Conveyance Project with East Midlands Ambulance Service, explained more below)
• FloodRes - Flood Response Trailer (Containing 5x Rescue Crafts)
• TRV - Technical Rescue Vehicle
• IRU - Incident Response Unit
• WrC - Water Carrier
• CSU - Command Support Unit
• FESU - Fire Emergency Support Unit (Red Cross)

Urban Search & Rescue (USAR):

• SDU - Search & Rescue Dog Unit
• PM - Prime Mover
• TSU - Technical Support Unit

Pods:

• Module 1 - Technical Search Equipment
• Module 2 - Heavy Transport, Confined Space & Hot Cutting
• Module 3 - Breaching & Breaking Equipment
• Module 4 - Multi Purpose Vehicle
• Module 5 - Shoring Operations

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service works in partnership with the East Midlands Ambulance Service(EMAS) to provide emergency medical cover to select areas of Lincolnshire. Currently, 11 areas have been identified as having a greater need for ambulance cover. The aim of a co-responder team is to preserve life until the arrival of either a Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV) or an ambulance. Co-responder firefighters in Lincolnshire are trained by, and operate as members of the Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service whilst on-call as a co-responder. However, co-responder firefighters are still dispatched and maintain communication with the fire and rescue control room in Nettleham.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue are the first Fire and Rescue Service in the United Kingdom to operate actual 'Fire Ambulances'. Three ambulances were trialed at Stamford, Woodhall Spa and Long Sutton fire stations. They were used to transport the patient to hospital care, assisting EMAS with freeing up ambulance crews and allowing the patient to reach hospital care sooner than waiting for EMAS transport.

Co-responder Vehicles and Ambulances are equipped with equipment based from the co-responder's responder level.

• List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty

• Official website