Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service

The Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the West Midlands region of England.

The service was created in 1974 when Herefordshire and Worcestershire were merged to create the county of Hereford and Worcester. The two counties were split up again in 1998 but the fire service remained, and is now run by a joint fire authority.

The Service covers an area of 3,908.59 km² with a population of 714,100. The service has 332 wholetime operational staff, 369 retained (part time) staff, 21 Fire Control staff, as well as about 98 non-uniformed support staff.

Famous quotes containing the words fire, rescue and/or service:

    “Hm, the beacon of the press. In the hell to which all journalists must descend when they die, Mr. Wiggam, we shall sit at red hot desks with quills of fire in our hand and spend eternity on eternity writing about the salubrious weather of that region. Let us serve our apprenticeship here thoroughly and intelligently.”
    —Ben Hecht (1893–1964)

    “We live in a time which has created the art of the absurd. It is our art. It contains happenings, Pop art, camp, a theater of the absurd.... Do we have the art because the absurd is the patina of waste...? Or are we face to face with a desperate or most rational effort from the deepest resources of the unconscious of us all to rescue civilization from the pit and plague of its bedding?”
    —Norman Mailer (b. 1923)

    “A man’s real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)