Humberside fire crews taking longer to respond to emergencies, according to Home Office figures

The Fire Brigades Union say a national slowing in fire response times is down to “huge levels of cuts” to services across England.

Home Office data shows that the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service responded to primary fires – the most serious kind – in an average of eight minutes 52 seconds during the year to September 2021.

Including one minute 22 seconds for call handling and five minutes 47 seconds drive-time, that is slower than in the 12 months to September 2020, when the average response time was eight minutes 34 seconds.

And the figures show that the response time had slowed since 2011, when crews attended primary incidents in around eight minutes two seconds.

That comes despite a drop in the number of call-outs to primary fires, which fell from 1,567 in 2011 to 1,027 last year.

The Fire Brigades Union say there has been a long-term slowing of response times nationally due to decades of funding cuts resulting in fewer firefighters, fire engines and stations.

Andy Dark, assistant general secretary of the FBU, said: “It is no surprise that response times are increasing – central government cuts are entirely to blame for this reduction in services and our communities deserve better.

“The Government is playing roulette with our lives and our properties.”

Separate figures show that since 2011, the number of full-time equivalent firefighters employed by the service dropped from 401 to 268 last year – a 33% fall.

Fire Minister Lord Greenhalgh said thousands of firefighters had been recruited across the country in 2021 and that fire and rescue authorities would receive around £2.3 billion to support their work.

He added: “Fire response times can fluctuate annually depending on many factors such as road traffic and weather but have remained relatively stable since March 2015.”