Birtley Community Fire Station

Built in 1992, Birtley Fire Station is located on Durham Road, Birtley on the southern extreme of the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council area. It covers the Birtley Ward and covers parts of the Lamesley, Chowdene, Lobley Hill and Bensham Wards. The station also covers parts of the Washington East and Washington West Ward areas both of which are part of the City of Sunderland Council area.

 

Presently, the station has two fire appliances and one specialist appliance and is staffed by 28 full time fire-fighters, 12 retained fire-fighters and 8 support staff. The staff are the main asset and, in addition to responding to emergencies, undertake a range of Community Safety (CS) activities that are primarily aimed at preventing fires and deaths and injuries from fires.

 

The station includes a Community Safety Centre which houses an Arson Task Force (ATF- a collaboration between Fire and Rescue Service and Northumbria Police personnel) and a Young Fire-fighters Association (YFA). A district CS department supports station personnel in the delivery of CS to the local community.

 

The completion of the new build fire station in Dryden Road, Gateshead will allow the ATF and the YFA to relocate to purpose build facilities within this station. This will allow the existing space, that is occupied by the ATF, to be converted into a CS Community Room that will be available for public use. The newly appointed Gateshead District CS Watch Manager will be located at this facility.

The geographical area served by Birtley Fire Station, varies greatly from relatively affluent residential to light and heavy industrial use. It includes parts of the Team Valley Trading Estate and relatively large tracts of rural land.

 

The population, based on the 2001 Census, is 26,181 persons who are predominantly from Anglo-Saxon background (97%) with a relatively small ethnic group (3%). There are 11,785 dwellings within the Station area with approximately: -

 

 

Single parent families occupy 7.1% of dwelling, with 16.9% single pensioner households. 28.5% of dwellings are households that have 3 or more dependant children.

 

Levels of unemployment in this area vary from 8.9% for males and 4.4% for females residing within the station area are unemployed. These figures reflect the socio-economic groups residing within the individual neighbourhoods which can be linked to the risk of dwelling fires occurring within the area. This is illustrated in the above map ( the red area indicates areas where the risk of having a dwelling fire is well above average, orange is above average, yellow is average, blue is below average and green is well below average).

 

If you wish to know more about the specific fire service issues in your area and how we intend to address these, details have been included in our Station Plan.