Staffordshire Fire Service Report: 8800 Incidents Attended, 82% Rise in Safety Audits, and Warning of New Fire Risks

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has released its annual performance report, detailing a year of high demand, a major increase in public safety checks, and the success of its award-winning community programmes.

The Statement of Assurance for 2024/25 confirms that the service attended over 8,800 incidents between April 2024 and March 2025, a number largely in line with the previous year. However, the report was published with a stark warning from the Chief Fire Officer, Rob Barber. He noted that the service is already seeing a "significant rise" in incidents in the current 2025/26 period, including a "massive 70 per cent" increase in outdoor fires, which is placing additional demand on crews.

Photos from a most recent fire exercise in Stafford Town Centre

A significant success highlighted in the report is a major shift towards proactive prevention. Fire safety audits of commercial and public buildings, such as care homes, hotels, tall buildings, and hospitals, have seen a "staggering" 82% increase. This is attributed to a new risk-based inspection programme. Alongside this, 'Safe and Well' visits to the homes of the most vulnerable residents also increased by 10%.

The report also shone a light on the service's work that goes beyond traditional firefighting. The award-winning "Home from Hospital" programme, for example, supported 2,600 patients in being safely discharged home, with only one individual being readmitted within 24 hours. The team's work was so valued that they became the first external partners to receive the Chief Executive Award from University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust for their "outstanding contribution to patient care". Other successful initiatives include the "Safe+Sound" programme, which has educated over 7,000 Year Five pupils, and a new Falls Response Team that attended over 2,200 incidents, freeing up ambulance crews.

Inspectors from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded the service as 'Outstanding' for its response to major and multi-agency incidents and 'Good' across the "majority of other areas". This high performance was matched by strong public interest in joining the service, with a recent recruitment drive for full-time firefighters attracting over 900 applications. During the 50th anniversary year, teams also raised over £50,000 for The Fire Fighters Charity and introduced their first fully electric response vehicle.

"I'm extremely proud of the hard work of our team and what they have delivered, in what was our 50th anniversary year" - Chief Fire Officer, Rob Barber

This sentiment was echoed by Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire & Rescue and Fire, Ben Adams, who said: “This report highlights the range of work Staffordshire Fire & Rescue carries out in addition to tackling fires... These results reflect the hard work and professionalism of our firefighters, staff and volunteers".