Recognition of support

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service would like to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to local employers who release their staff to serve the community as `on-call` firefighters.

Also known as RDS (Retained Duty System) firefighters, on-call firefighters are not based in fire stations. Instead, they are on standby, waiting to be called out by pager. They may be at home, working for themselves or working for a company which allows them to leave work to attend emergency calls.

Like their full time colleagues, on-call firefighters are trained and equipped to deal with a wide range of incidents and situations. These include property fires, road traffic collisions, chemical spillages, animal rescues, flood and storm damage.

We appreciate the goodwill of such employers which enables our ‘on-call’ fire and rescue capabilities to be available in parts of West Yorkshire. Employers allow on-call firefighters, who live or work within five minutes of their local fire station, to leave work at a moment’s notice when their pager alerts them to an emergency in their community.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service would like to thank the following employers for releasing individuals to enable them to be ‘on-call’ firefighters for Skelmanthorpe fire station:

• JSC Construction
• A V Motors
• Royal Mail
• MTR Windows