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Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service

HMICFRS region and HMI

  • His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services (HMI): Roy Wilsher is temporary HMI for Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service
  • HMICFRS region: The service is in HMICFRS’s Western fire region

HMICFRS’s assessment of Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service

Our Fire and Rescue Service assessments give you information about how your local fire and rescue service has performed in several important areas. In our latest assessments of Devon and Somerset FRS, we made the following graded judgments:

 

About the service

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service is the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in England. It works to protect the 1.7 million people who live in Devon and Somerset. An additional 400,000 people visit the region every year.

The service aims to secure properties from damage of flood or fires, provide specialist animal rescue and respond to medical trauma on behalf of the South West Ambulance Service Trust.

Fire officers liaise with organisations to ensure that their buildings are adhering to fire safety legislation. They also visit homes and give safety advice and install smoke alarms.

The service also carries out school educational visits, road traffic collision educational programmes, youth inclusion programmes, arson reduction programmes and targeted home safety visits.

The service has 84 stations, the second largest number in England.

Connect with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service

Key facts – 2022/2023

Service Area

3,923 square miles

Population

1.81m million people people
up4% local 5 yr change

Workforce (FTE)

47% wholetime firefighters
53% on-call firefighters
0.65 per 1000 population local
0.54 national level
down8% local 5 yr change
down4% national 5 yr change

Assets

83 stations
112 fire engines

Incidents

9.8 fire incidents per 1000 population local
10.4 national
4.1 non-fire incidents per 1000 population local
3.5 national
3.8 fire false alarms per 1000 population local
4.3 national

Cost

£31.55 firefighter cost per person per year
£26.96 firefighter cost per person per year (national)