Fears over how fire service will cope after loss of one third of jobs in South Yorkshire

New figures released today show that the UK has lost 19 per cent of its firefighters and control room staff since 2010, with 311 jobs axed last year alone.

In South Yorkshire, 292 fire service posts have been lost over the last decade, which is 31 per cent of the total number employed by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

The Fire Brigades Union has warned that fire and rescue services won’t be ready for major threats to the UK without more firefighters.

The combined threats of climate change related events such as flooding and wildfires, pandemics, terrorism, and the post-Grenfell building safety crisis will require the immediate funding for at least 5,000 firefighters in the next year, the FBU says, to ensure the fire and rescue service can tackle ‘the risks of today and tomorrow’.

The union claims that without additional crews, the public face a ‘roll of the dice’ every time a major incident occurs, with firefighters hoping that it won’t coincide with another serious emergency.

The FBU has today launched its #FundTheFrontline campaign, in which firefighters and members of the public will be asked to write to their MPs demanding urgent investment in the government’s one-year spending review.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Be it mass flooding and wildfires caused by climate change, huge post-Grenfell building safety challenges, terrorist attacks or pandemics, firefighters are an all hazards emergency service on the frontline protecting the UK from the vast majority of major threats.

“But a decade of devastating cuts means that we can only effectively handle one of these crises at a time. The brutal reality is that, if and when mass-flooding or another major emergency hits this winter, it could impact firefighters’ ability to aid the pandemic response, or respond to another major incident.

”Increasingly, each time one of these major emergencies break out, the public face a roll of the dice, hoping that more than one won’t come at once - and it’s only a matter of time until we lose that gamble.”