About
Leominster station is based in North Herefordshire, being the largest town in this area it offers a strategic position for fire cover provided by Hereford and Worcester Fire & Rescue Service. The service has 27 stations, and although it has five wholetime stations only one is in Herefordshire, Hereford is the only wholetime station the rest of fire cover is given by 12 of the services 19 retained stations.
What is a retained Fire Fighter?
We represent a group of around 369 trained firefighters and Junior Officers, we provide cover to the majority of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. So what is the difference between the retained and our wholetime colleagues?
Every retained fire fighter has a full time job generally in the community in which their “home station” is based. Every walk of life can be, and often is, represented in the service. However, when required, the retained are paged with an alerter and we meet at our station to carry out the duties of the fire service.
Our wholetime colleagues follow a national work pattern of 2 days followed by 2 nights followed by 4 days off, alternatively the “day crewed” wholetime crews work 4 days on 4 days off. Whole time crews are based at stations with fire risks that need to be attended to within nationaly dictated time spans.
The retained, are in part, on duty 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We are available to perform our fire service duties, wether at work, “at play” or asleep at home.
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