Tyne & Wear Fire & Rescue Service

Tyne & Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade was created on April 1st 1974, alongside the new Metropolitan County of Tyne & Wear. Previously, the area of Tyne & Wear had been served by six separate Fire Brigades:  Newcastle and Gateshead Fire Brigade, Sunderland Fire Brigade, South Shields Fire Brigade,  Tynemouth Fire Brigade,  Durham County Fire Brigade and Northumberland County Fire Brigade. Although the County of Tyne & Wear was disbanded in 1986, the brigade kept its name and continued to provide fire cover for the five boroughs that replaced it the large.  The brigade chnagd its name to Tyne & Wear Fire Service in 2004. 

The service operates 17 fire stations, of which 14 are full-time, 2 are day crewed, and 1 is retained. During the 2023/24 reporting year, the service responded to approx 17,000 incidents.