Just days after the huge Fleetwood fire, plans to cut back local station could go ahead

Responses time in Fleetwood will suffer under plans mooted by the fire service

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

Last week, fire crews from Fleetwood, Preston, Morecambe and Blackpool responded to the sort of fire you can see for miles around at Lord Street in Fleetwood itself.

Two teenagers have been arrested and bailed after the fire, but it is undoubtedly true that the crews deserve immense praise for the way they dealt with the incident over a 24 hour-plus period.

The need for quick responses to incidents like this is inarguable - but next week the option of cutting the hours at Fleetwood Fire Station will be discussed and are expected to go ahead.

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Just days after the huge Fleetwood fire, plans to cut back local fire station could go ahead

Fire crews in Fleetwood

By Michael Holmes

Fire brigade chiefs are pressing ahead with plans to end Fleetwood Fire Station’s full-time status - adding four minutes to evening response times - just days after crews battled an inferno in the town centre.

Rather than having crews based at the Radcliffe Road base around the clock, bosses at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) want to instead only keep firefighters there during office hours.

An 18-month trial of so-called “flexible day crewing” (FDC) at the station, which would only be manned from 6am to 6pm, will be discussed next week.

Firefighters would then remain on-call during the evening, travelling to the station from home as and when there are emergencies.

While the number of firefighters based there would be cut from 24 to 12, with those staying needing to live within five minutes of the station, neither of the two fire engines nor any jobs would be lost.

Personnel unwilling to switch from the wholetime 2/2/4 duty system, where they work day shifts for two days, night shifts for two days and then have four days off, along with any surplus firefighters, would be transferred to another station, documents seen by The Blackpool Lead have revealed.