New home for York fire and rescue unveiled

York Fire Station will take over as North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s main presence in the city centre next week.

The move will see firefighers move from the Clifford Street fire station which is closing.

However, the new building on a former coach park at Kent Street will only be housing one of the fire engines currently stationed in the city centre.

The second fire engine and the aerial ladder platform, used to tackle fires in tall buildings, will be transferred to Huntington.

Those changes have prompted concerns that the fire service will find it harder to tackle blazes in the historic city centre.

However the fire service says the new arrangements will give the city the same level of cover but with firefighters now in better locations.

Paul Bennett, station manager at the new York Fire Station, said: “We never denied the fact there would be a change but it is around 800 yards from Kent Street to Clifford Street which adds around a minute to the turnout time to the city centre.

“But by putting the second fire engine at Huntington we are improving attendance times to the north and south-east of the city.

“There will be a 12 month review period and Kent Street has been built to have an additional bay if the review says having two appliances is needed.”

The fire service believes the reorganisation will mean it can get to 45,000 people in the city more quickly than before.

The Huntington station is currently home to a part-time crew but from next week will have a full-time fire engine, speeding up response times.

A rescue boat previously housed at Clifford Street will make also make the move to the new York station.

Acomb will continue to be home to one full-time and a second part-time crew as well as the incident support unit.

Mr Bennett said: “One of the main benefits of the new station are the training facilities we will have now. There was nothing at Clifford Street and we had to do everything off site.”

The new station has a three-storey tower and a compound where firefighters can practice skills such as freeing people trapped in cars.

It also has a purpose-built room that can be used for lectures to firefighters or made available to the local community for meetings.

The overhaul to the way the fire service operates in York was triggered by a report five years ago which warned that the Clifford Street station was no longer fit for purpose. It was felt the station’s proximity to the Ouse made it vulnerable to flooding and its condition meant it would require significant spending to bring it up to standard.