Contents
Your Fire and Rescue Service
Humberside is an area around the Humber Estuary, covering parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The River Humber, formed by the Trent and Ouse, divides the region, joined by the River Hull and smaller outlets. It has a North Sea coastline with sandy beaches, eroding cliffs, and notable features like Spurn Point. Major roads include the M62, A63, A15 (which crosses the Humber Bridge), and A180. Key towns are Kingston upon Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Goole, and Beverley. Landmarks include the Humber Bridge, the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds, international ports, and a strong tradition of fishing and agriculture.
Challenges in Humberside
Humberside's large size presents challenges for residents and services like the Fire and Rescue Service.
Access to Services
- Residents face longer travel times for work, healthcare, and shopping compared to Yorkshire and England. Humberside’s job accessibility score is 282, significantly lower than the national average of 698. The "Access to Health Assets and Hazards" index also highlights longer journeys to healthcare and leisure facilities.
Community Needs
- Humberside faces significant community challenges, ranking lower (10,396) than Yorkshire (15,002) and England (17,040) on the community needs index.
Green Space and Community Assets
- Access to green spaces is limited, with only 15% of households near one, well below national averages.
Our operational demand
The types of incidents we respond to have changed over time. Most increases and those projected to rise further are not fire related. They reflect societal challenges and operational changes, such as greater collaboration, highlighting the Fire and Rescue Service’s evolving role.
Our analysis shows trends in incident types, with some expected to rise further. Special Service incidents, which are non-fire and non-false alarms (e.g. road traffic collisions and water rescues), dominate the table summarising incident types that have increased over the last five years. The table also shows predicted trends up to 2026/27 and estimated incidents for the next three years.
| Type of incident | 5-Year Change 2019/20 to 2023/24 | Predicted Trend to 2026/27 | Predicted Number of Incidents 2024/25 | Predicted Number of Incidents 2025/26 | Predicted Number of Incidents 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Special Service - Standby No Action | |||||
| Special Service - Assist Other Agencies | |||||
| Suicide-Related (all incident types including fires) | |||||
| Arson in Prisons | |||||
| Special Service - Advice Given Only | |||||
| Special Service - Suicide or Attempt |
Community risk matrix
We use a community risk matrix to identify, analyse and score risk themes based on harm and likelihood. This evaluation considers factors such as harm to individuals, community and environmental impacts, economic costs, and public expectations.
We also assess the impact on Humberside Fire and Rescue Service by examining incident trends, capacity to manage risks, employee effects, reputational risks and costs to the Service.
In addition to the Community Risk Matrix, we have identified other categories of risk that affect our community, incident attendance and resource planning:
- Lone living: A significant fire risk prevalent in our community.
- Disability: A major fire risk and a common feature in our community.
- Health and mortality: Common diseases and mortality rates are worse in our community compared to others.
- Alcohol harm: A significant fire risk and higher in our community than elsewhere.
- Smoking prevalence: A major fire risk, though expected to decline over time.
- Road risk: Assessed using collision rates, based on a National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) method.
- Heritage sites: Valuable and irreplaceable community assets.
- Fires at waste treatment sites: Increasingly prevalent.
- Crime and deliberate fire-setting.
- High-consequence sleeping risks: Care homes and high-rise dwellings.
- Emerging trends: Accidental dwelling fires linked to poor housing conditions and changing demographics.
These insights guide our efforts to manage and mitigate risks effectively across the community.