New county firefighters

A total of 18 new recruits working in a wide array of jobs ranging from a care worker to a carpenter, and a ladies hockey player to a hospital practitioner, have “passed out” as firefighters with Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

All retained firefighters, they have joined county fire stations at Newport, Tweedale inTelford, Shrewsbury, Bishops Castle, Cleobury Mortimer, Oswestry, Ellesmere, Prees, Whitchurch, Hodnet, Wem and Minsterley.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Fri, 30/09/2011 - 11:09

Drivers warned about rural roads

The Safer Roads Partnership in West Mercia are today warning motorists of the dangers that may be present during this time of year as farmers are using the roads more when harvesting and moving their produce.

Agriculture is one of Shropshire’s major industries and harvesting a wide variety of crops at this time of the year sees an increase in agricultural vehicles on the road. The Partnership is reminding farmers that leaving mud and debris on the road is an offence under the Highways Act and is a potential hazard to other road users.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Wed, 28/09/2011 - 09:47

Fire training is the best

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has received a top accolade for its NVQ delivery for both firefighters and non-uniform staff.

The county’s Training and Development Centre at Telford Central Fire Station has been praised as “outstanding” after an external audit.

The national praise comes as it was revealed that Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is held up as a “beacon” of training excellence with other services across the country looking to share its Firefighter Development Programme.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Tue, 27/09/2011 - 10:18

New control room for Shropshire

A new Incident Control Centre for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has just gone “live” after the cancellation of the national Fire Control Project in December 2010.

“Cancellation of the national Fire Control Project left us with a system well past it’s sell by date. We had to act.” Chief Fire Officer Paul Raymond said today after the publication of the report into the failure of the Regional Control Centre which would have moved the service out of the county.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Wed, 21/09/2011 - 11:21

Grassland arson attacks

Be vigilant – that is the message from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service after a series of possible arson attacks to gorse and grassland in south Shropshire.

Firefighters have attended nine fires around the Catherton Common area, near Cleobury Mortimer, in the past six weeks. They also attended another grassland fire on The Common in April this year. (pictured)

Submitted by web-services-officer on Mon, 19/09/2011 - 16:11

Campaign focuses on distractions behind the wheel

An awareness raising campaign targeting young drivers is being launched today by the Safer Roads Partnership in West Mercia. The campaign focuses on risky behaviour and the distractions that young drivers may be faced with when they are behind the wheel.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Tue, 13/09/2011 - 14:58

Charity bike ride

Raising money for cystic fibrosis – that is the aim of a 300 mile bike ride planned by two ardent Shropshire charity supporters which will take them through three countries visiting three capital cities in Europe.

Wellington firefighter Nick Herbert (47) and brother-in-law Keith Roberts (56), a member of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, are due to set off on the London to Brussels expedition of a European charity cycling challenge on Tuesday. (September 13)

Submitted by web-services-officer on Mon, 12/09/2011 - 12:59

Witnesses sought to arson attack on Shrewsbury home

Police today issued a witness appeal following an arson attack on a Shrewsbury home which caused smoke and fire damage.

The incident happened at around 11am on Friday at a house in Whitehouse Gardens, Ditherington.

Plastic panels beneath a window at the back of the premises were set alight. The fire spread up the wall to a window, causing the glass to crack, before spreading to curtains and a bedroom.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service quickly dealt with the fire but the bedroom and hallways were severely smoke-damaged.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Wed, 07/09/2011 - 12:18

Arson attack on unoccupied Telford home

Police are appealing for information following an arson attack on an unoccupied Telford home.

The incident happened at an address in Western Rise in Ketley between 2:30pm and 3pm on Bank Holiday Monday (29 August).

An ignited piece of paper was put through the letterbox, causing a fire in the porch of the property.

The smoke alarms were activated, which alerted a neighbour to the fire.

The neighbour immediately called the fire service and also attempted to extinguish the fire by pouring water through the letterbox.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Thu, 01/09/2011 - 14:21

Oswestry firefighters rescue trapped pet

Shropshire firefighters were called out to rescue a dog trapped down a rabbit hole just weeks after getting to the finals of the national Dogs Trust Honours 2011 for a similar animal rescue.

This time it took Oswestry firefighters a relatively short time to free Jake the Jack Russell trapped a metre down a rabbit hole at Weston Rhyn.

Their colleagues had worked tirelessly for three hours to save another dog called Cookie trapped in a myriad of underground rabbit holes near Shrewsbury earlier this year.

Submitted by web-services-officer on Thu, 01/09/2011 - 13:21

General