FIREFIGHTERS in Tenbury have battled through their busiest year to date, with a record number of callouts in 2023.

A spokesperson for the station said that their crew was called out 209 times to a wide variety of incidents from the usual road traffic collisions and building fires, to some more unusual instances including a discovery of wartime chemical grenades that they attended with their environment protection unit.

Flooding was one of the major issues the stations team had to tackle last year, attending the Bewdley Command Cell to help combat wide area flooding and then returning to deal with a second spell of wide area flooding in October.

The most unusual false alarm the spokesperson said they had been called to in 2023 was a reported house fire in Tenbury. When the team arrived they found that what had been mistaken for billowing smoke was in fact the steam from a roof cleaning company washing a house roof.

The spokesperson said: “This year we have been fortunate to have enjoyed good availability, averaging around 97 per cent across the year, so we must also pass on our thanks to the employers who have released staff for firefighting duties and our families for their unwaivering support.

“We also enjoyed our first ever community 999 day, where we opened our doors to the public alongside our police and ambulance co-responder colleagues. We hope to be able to repeat that in 2024.”

Tenbury Wells Fire Station is a retained fire station, so it is staffed solely by on-call firefighters, who respond to emergency calls whenever they are needed.

The station has a Scania fire engine that can carry a crew of up to six firefighters along with firefighting and rescue equipment. Furthermore, the crews are trained as water first responders which allows them to attend water rescue incidents and perform tasks that normal fire crews aren't trained to do.

Entering into the new year, the station’s team will continue to cover a large geographical area, giving support to neighbouring stations at Leominster, Bromyard and Bewdley, as well as assistance to Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.