Firefighters who put their lives at risk every day must be given the resources they need, an MP has said.
Shipley MP Philip Davies said numbers of firefighters per engine across West Yorkshire was falling as a result of being overstretched.
Speaking in Home Office questions Mr Davies called for action and more support for firefighters as had been given to Police in recent months.
He said: “I fully support government in recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers but can I ask the minister to look again at the resources for the fire service because certainly in West Yorkshire, and I suspect in other parts of the country too, are extremely stretched at the moment, the number of people on a fire engine is going down to try and mask over these stretched resources. Can I ask him to look again because the fire service need extra resources in the way that the police do too.”
Mr Davies said firefighters are laying their lives on the line daily to protect the public and Government must do all it can to support them.
Home Office Minister Kit Malthouse said: “I would expect nothing less than a challenge from the champion of Shipley as he has done in my previous portfolios. I would be more than happy to look at problems in his fire service if he believes there is one.
“We have instituted recently and had the result of the first inspection regime of fire and rescue services for some time, which has been reassuring in parts but does point to particular areas that need to be addressed. We had a good settlement from the Treasury this year from a financial point of view and it will be for local fire service chiefs to decide how they invest that extra money.”
Last year Mr Davies wrote to the Fire Minister demanding action after learning of reduction in crew numbers across the region.
Mr Davies added: “Firefighters deal with hazardous situations every single day and we owe it to them to ensure they have the resources they need, the support they need to deal with the stresses that come with the job and to make sure everything that can be done is done to keep our firefighters safe.”