Fire and rescue service operational statistics: April 2017 to March 2018

Fire and Rescue Authority personnel

• There were 2,139 fulltime equivalent staff (FTE) and 1,328 retained duty system (RDS) staff employed across the three Welsh Fire and Rescue Authority areas on 31 March 2018. This compares with 2,110 fulltime and 1,292 retained staff on 31 March 2017. The numbers of FTE and RDS staff have seen fluctuations since 2004-05, but this is the second consecutive year on year rise in this period.
• Of the 2,139 FTE staff, over two thirds (1,455) were wholetime firefighters. A similar proportion was seen in 2016-17.

Health and safety

• During 2017-18, 9.3 shifts/days were lost per person to sickness for wholetime firefighters and 14.3 shifts/days for fire control staff.
• There were 100 injuries sustained by wholetime (including day crew) and retained duty system firefighters in the course of operational and training activities.

Operational activities

• During 2017-18 fire control handled over 70,000 calls in Wales, an increase of 4% on 2016-17.

Fire safety

• In 2017-18, Welsh Fire and Rescue Authorities completed 3,370 fire safety audits in non-domestic premises. This represents 4% of known such premises in Wales.

Community fire safety

• In 2017-18 the Fire and Rescue Authorities in Wales completed over 53,000 Home Fire Safety Checks; in 86% of these at least one member of the household was identified as displaying a risk.
• In 2017-18 the Fire and Rescue Authorities completed over 20,000 Home Fire Safety Checks that also involved completion of non-fire related prevention activity. Over 2,500 resulted in the Fire and Rescue Authorities making an onward referral to another organisation.
• Over 100,000 children and young people received a fire safety talk in school from the Fire and Rescue Authorities in 2017-18.