Our Service

We have five wholetime stations, crewed 24 hours a day, at Bedford, Dunstable, Kempston, Luton and Stopsley. The fire stations at Bedford and Kempston are also supported by Retained Duty System (RDS) personnel. Leighton Buzzard is day crewed by wholetime staff during the daytime and reverts to a Retained Crewing System during the night. In addition, 8 stations at Ampthill, Biggleswade, Harrold, Potton, Sandy, Shefford, Toddington and Woburn are crewed by personnel on the Retained Duty System. Our firefighters regularly train, maintain and test equipment to ensure they always remain operationally ready to respond to emergencies. 

Our modern and well maintained fleet includes 25 fire appliances, 22 specialist vehicles, 35 vans, 23 cars and 2 welfare units.

We work closely with our blue light partners, primarily through co-responding alongside EEAST Ambulance service continued with 88 incidents attended in 2022-23. Previous evaluations have shown the community benefit of co-responding both in terms of reducing response times and improving patient outcomes. A Falls Response Team pilot began in January 2020 with around eight incidents per month attended in 2020-21. The trial has been evaluated and has been successful in meeting its aims. We also hold capability for technical rescues assisting the ambulance service (including bariatric), with 79 incidents attended in 2022-23.

We have highly experienced Prevention and Protection teams based strategically in the north and south of the county at our Luton and Bedford community fire stations, and welcome the co-location of emergency partners at several of our sites also.