Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service is the

statutory A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

fire and rescue service for

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

and

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...

in England. Since 2012, the headquarters for the service's 38 fire stations are at Penrith next to the headquarters of Cumbria Constabulary.

History

Prior to 1947, there was the National Fire Service and before that there were various independent services run by volunteers in villages, towns and cities throughout the country. Cumbria Fire Service was formed in 1974 after local government was reorganised. It took in

Fire Service,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

Fire Service,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

and Barrow Fire Services and parts of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. In 2005, the service changed its name to Cumbria Fire & Rescue service to reflect the new responsibilities it now has.

Performance

Every fire and rescue service in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

is periodically subjected to a statutory inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). The inspection investigates how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:

Fire stations

Of the 38

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...

s, there are six wholetime in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

East and West,

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

and

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...

), of which three are supported by

retained firefighter In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to eme ...

s; two day-crewed (

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...

and Penrith); and 30 retained. The fire stations are split Cumbria into three areas, each containing two of the former districts of Cumbria: *Allerdale and Copeland *Barrow and South Lakeland *Carlisle and Eden

Incidents of note

* 8 January 2005 – Carlisle and North Cumbria Floods, the worst flooding in living memory caused massive disruption and damage across the county. More than 3,000 properties were affected, 60,000 homes were without power and some areas of Carlisle were under of water. * 5 November 2006 – Over 100 firefighters from across South Cumbria fought a major fire which eventually destroyed two of Barrow's largest superstores ( MFI and Allied Carpets). * 2 January 2008 – Dozens of firefighters fight a large blaze in Barrow's

Matalan Matalan Retail Ltd is a British clothing and homewares retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside, founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. In August 1988, its operations director at the time, Duncan Sullivan, transformed Matalan into an out-of-town wa ...

store, just next door to a construction site where MFI once stood. * 11 January 2017 – Over 50 firefighters fight a large blaze in the old House of Lords building connected to Bar Continental in Barrow-in-Furness. The fire caused the building to at least partially collapse.

References

External links