What we do.

Contrary to popular belief, our firefighters don’t spend all of their time racing from one raging inferno to another. Yes, a key part of their role is to respond to emergencies - and that role is life saving and must never be forgotten. But the emergencies they deal with aren't just limited to house fires. They attend road, rail and air traffic accidents, clean up chemical spills and floods, and defend against acts of terrorism too.

They also spend a great deal of time promoting fire safety within the community. One of the simplest but perhaps the most effective ways of doing that is by carrying out home fire risk assessments, which includes advising people on their escape routes. In 2005/06 we carried out over 25,690 assessments, and we’ve made a commitment to have a working smoke alarm in every property in Greater Manchester within the next five years.

We carry out building inspections to ensure that businesses are meeting their fire safety regulations. And we do presentations in schools to raise awareness of fire safety and highlight the dangers of things like fireworks and matches.

We’ve even teamed up with the Prince’s Trust to help engage young people in our communities. One of our joint initiatives, called FIREFLY, recently won a national Community Fire Safety Award. FIREFLY provides life skills for young people between the ages of 11 and 16, some of whom have been in trouble or experienced difficult times in their lives.

We could keep going. But we think the best way for you to find out about the range of work we do is to hear from those who do it. Click here for some of our firefighter’s Frontline stories.