Wallsend Community Fire Station

Wallsend Community Fire station was opened on 27 June 1989. It replaced the existing Fire Station at Lawson Street in Wallsend which had served the Community for well over 80 years. Wallsend was formerly part of Northumberland County Fire Service and was amalgamated into the Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade with the local Government re- organisation in 1974. The station area is bounded the River Tyne to the south and extends north to the Whitley Road at Holystone. It extends westwards to Waverdale Avenue in Walker and eastwards to the A19 Trunk Road. The Station Area encompasses the Town Centre of Wallsend, Battle Hill, Howdon on Tyne, East Walker, Hadrian Park and the west of North Shields.

 

The appliances are staffed with 48 fire-fighters and 4 support staff including a Station Clerk. The crews are called upon to attend a wide variety of incidents and also deliver Community Safety advice and training to the general public. We are also engaged in promoting the use of Smoke Alarms and have an extensive programme of fitting smoke alarms to domestic properties. This is designed to reduce fire deaths, injuries from fire and damage to property.

 

The Legislative Fire safety department based at Tynemouth Community fire station deals with all Fire related matters in Wallsend and these include major planning applications, inspecting business premises and licensing issues.

 

The Community Safety Department is based at Tynemouth Community Fire Station and is involved in promoting fire safety to the general public in the Wallsend area. They work in partnership with North Tyneside Council and Northumbria police and are heavily involved in an education programme within the schools in North Tyneside. A partnership with Northumbria Police has allowed an Arson Task Force to be created and they tackle the problem of deliberate fire setting and allow us to target our resources where they are most needed. This has proved to be a success in other areas of the Brigade in recent years.

The Area 

The geographical area covered by this station is the North East section of Tyne and Wear. It is bounded on the south side by the River Tyne and extends east to the A19 Trunk Road.

 

The population residing in the area, based on the 2001 Census, states 50,832 persons who are from various ethnic backgrounds. These include Anglo-Saxon’s 95.2% non UK origin 2.6% and non white 2.1%. There are 23,795 dwellings within the station area with approximately: -

 

 

Single parent families occupy 8.6 % of dwellings, with 15.9% single pensioner households. Households with dependant children total 30.4 %.

 

Levels of unemployment across this area vary from 11.1% for males to 5.9% for females. These figures reflect the socio-economic groups residing within individual neighbourhoods, which can be linked to the risk of dwelling fires occurring within the area. This is illustrated in the above map where the risk of having a dwelling fire is well above average is shown in red, orange is above average, yellow is average, blue is below average and green is well below average.

 

The water risk is apparent and the River Tyne promotes many risks associated with vessels of all sizes. There is also ship building and ship repair yards with Offshore Oil and Gas platform building facilities in the immediate area.

 

The business community is expanding and new business parks are developing in the area.

The Tyne Tunnel is in the east side of the station area and it has its own associated risks. There is a high volume of traffic passing through on a daily basis and the government are planning to build a new tunnel to relieve some of the burden on the existing facility.

 

We have a wide cross section of domestic property in our area and these range from large Victorian town houses to compact council estates. Two Major road pass through the Station area; A1058 Coast Road to Newcastle and A19 Trunk Road. These pose a significant risk due to the large amount of traffic both within the District of Wallsend and the volume of traffic passing through it.

 

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.