To mark the 50th anniversary of of the creation of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service on April 1, 1974,
And look back at the formative days of the service
shops, hotels and boarding houses, licensed premises and registered clubs, petrol stations, theatres and cinemas, hospitals and schools.
To carry out these duties, officers have prolonged and intensive training, both within the brigade and at the national training centres.
Stafford’s fire service took on four new recruits at a special ceremony at the end of April 1974, the men joining the division at a passing-out parade at the station. Altogether eight trainees were inspected on parade by County Fire Officer David Blacktop.
They had all completed a two-year training course as junior firemen, followed by a further six-week action course on the station. Among them was Martin Bowran, 18, of Rising Brook, Stafford. He was stationed at Stafford for 18 months, with Kenneth Birch, 18, of Hednesford, Stephen Lyons, 18, of Bloxwich and Allan Rotchell, 18, of Cannock.
In late March 1974, The Rugeley Times reported on the impact the changes would have on Cannock Chase:
“These will be separated into districts, coinciding with the new district council areas, so that Cannock, Hednesford, and Rugeley come under the Cannock Chase district, while the former Cannock Rural District is part of South Staffordshire. In charge of the Cannock Chase District will be Assistant Divisional Officer, RL Anslow, at the Cannock station.”
The merger between the various stations formalised co-ordinated responses to fires were recognised and the transition was relatively seamless.
For example, on April 28, 1973 there was a fire alarm at Lea Hall Colliery, in Rugeley, with both Rugeley and Cannock firemen rushing to the pit.
Four water tenders - two from each station - arrived at Lea Hall but the blaze was not as serious as had at first been thought. A large amount of smoke issued from the coal preparation house where a stationary conveyor belt had caught fire.
The firemen used breathing apparatus and there was a danger that the coal dust in the building would flare up. But the fire was confined to the building - it was away from the main Lea Hall Colliery offices and pit shafts and no one was hurt. It was three hours before the smouldering rubber was finally made safe and the firemen could leave.
Such co-ordinated responses continued after the changeover the following year. Concern for the Easter 1974 holiday just days after the changeover saw the Fire Service and Forestry Commission issuing an urgent warning that the Easter holiday may bring with it a fire risk.
A spokesman for the fire service said “picnickers using paraffin and gas stoves must be especially careful” and a spokesman for the Forestry Commission said: “It was not generally understood by the public that between February and April winds were very drying and the previous year fires in Great Britain burnt 1,373 acres of woodland.”
Within two years the coordination of fire services would be tested to the limit, as the county and country experienced the long hot summer of 1976.
In 1998 Stafford conferred on Staffordshire Fire and Rescue
Service the Freedom of the Borough.