Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service

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**Highlands and Islands Fire And Rescue Service**
Coverage
Highlands and Islands Fire And Rescue Service area
Area	Highland, Scotland
Size	31,186 square kilometres
Population	280,000
Operations
Formed	2005
HQ	Inverness
Staff	approx. 1870
Stations	127
Chief Fire Officer	Brian Murray

Website	http://www.hifrs.org
Fire Authority	Highlands And Islands Fire Board

The Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service (previously Highland and Islands Fire Brigade) is the statutory fire and rescue service for northern Scotland, covering the council areas of Highland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles, and so covering a major part of the Highlands and Islands area. It is the fire service covering the largest geographical area in the United Kingdom (its area is roughly equivalent in size to Belgium), and has its headquarters in the city of Inverness. The current Chief Fire Officer is Brian Murray.[1]

The same area of Scotland is covered by the Northern Constabulary.

[edit] History

The current Fire Service stems from the Northern Area Fire Brigade, formed in 1947 after the passing of the Fire Services Act, and covered the same area the service does today, with the exception of the Western Isles. In 1975, with the reorganisation of local government, the service became the Northern Fire Brigade and gained the Western Isles as part of its catchment area. In 1983 another name change was invoked, this time to Highland and Islands Fire Brigade, to more accurately reflect the area which the Brigade served. The current name, Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service, was adopted in the summer of 2005, as a result of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. As well as the name change, for the first time in the service's history, a Gaelic motto, dion is fregair, or "protect and respond," was sanctioned. [2]

[edit] Stations

The service currently operates 127 stations throughout the Highlands and Islands. The only wholetime station is in Inverness, which also operates a retained pump. Of the rest of the stations, 95 are retained and 31 operate as "Community Response Units." All of the service's stations are supported locally by district offices, which supervise the operations of the stations in their respective areas. These offices are located in Inverness, Aviemore, Fort William, Invergordon, Ullapool, Dornoch, Thurso, Stornoway, Benbecula, Kirkwall, and Lerwick. Inverness is also the location of the main headquarters, which is situated next to the city's fire station.

The service also has a training facility based 25 miles north of Inverness in Invergordon, [3] as well as a state of the art control centre, which again is based in the Highland capital, but on a different site from the main headquarters. [4]