Increasing our frontline operational fleet

We are proposing to increase our overall frontline fleet by introducing two additional fire engines, taking our total from 50 to 52. These fire engines would be placed in and around the city centre – at Manchester Central Fire Station and Moss Side Fire Station.

This is in response to the ongoing transformation of our city-region, particularly in and around central Manchester itself, where increasing numbers of high-rise buildings are combining with some ageing infrastructure and existing older buildings to increase the risks of fires spreading and being more difficult to put out.

The additional crew members in place alongside the new fire engines will also increase the capacity for prevention and protection focused outreach and engagement activities in some of our highest risk areas.

For every building that poses a significant risk across Greater Manchester, we create and maintain Site Specific Risk Information records (SSRIs) that provide information on the buildings and help keep our firefighters and member of the public safe should an incident occur. By increasing the number of firefighters in an around the city centre where the overwhelming of SSRIs exist, we are better resourced to meet this workload and ensure records remain current.

Manchester Central

Manchester has more than 600 high-rise buildings, with around 180 currently in interim measures.
Average response time within this area will improve by 17 seconds, from 6 minutes 16 seconds to 5 minutes 59 seconds.
The performance of Manchester Central’s first fire engine's arrival at incidents would be maintained at a rate of 94%.

Moss Side

Moss Side has a number of high and very high-risk wards, which will benefit from the additional delivery of prevention activities to keep our communities safe.
The performance of Moss Side’s first fire engine's arrival at incidents will be maintained at a rate of 94%.
Average response time within this area improves by 18 seconds, from 6 minutes 18 seconds to 6 minutes.