Response

Our emergency response services have been graded ‘Outstanding’ by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.

They protect lives and properties, keep businesses in business and help keep the West Midlands’ transport networks flowing.

Our professional, full-time firefighters respond assertively, effectively and safely to a wide variety of incidents, 24/7.

In 2021/22 our Fire Control handled 44,521 calls, in an average of 77 seconds per call. Our fire crews attended 24,101 incidents and arrived at the most serious in an average of just 4 minutes 41 seconds.

Based on evidence and our knowledge of risk, we know that our five-minute attendance standard for serious incidents in high-risk areas saves lives, homes and businesses.

This also helps us plan where we need our people and resources including our fire stations, engines and more specialist resources. In turn, this gives us the capacity to deliver our equally important prevention and protection work with the West Midlands’ most vulnerable.

We have an excellent track record of increasing public safety and working collaboratively with other agencies and organisations. We continue to work with partners, academics and health colleagues to carry out research to ensure our early response creates the best outcomes for our communities.

Further afield, we support the UK-wide emergency approach, through being a key part of the National Resilience arrangements. The skills and expertise of our staff can be called upon to help people in the UK or around the world who are affected by major incidents or humanitarian crises.