About Us Fire Service Personnel Our personnel comprises of wholetime, retained and non-uniformed staff.
Wholetime Personnel
Wholetime are full time uniformed members of staff. The vast majority are trained as firefighters and are stationed on eight out of the fifteen Fire Stations located throughout County Durham & Darlington. In addition there are a number of wholetime firefighters working in specialist posts within the organisation. For example, community fire safety, legislative fire safety, training, and technical support. There are also wholetime Fire Control Operators who are specially trained to receive emergency calls and to mobilise appliances and resources.
Retained Personnel
Retained personnel are part-time uniformed members of staff. There is a total of 168 retained staff, when at full strength, all of which are trained as firefighters and provide cover on thirteen of the fifteen Fire Stations in County Durham and Darlington. Seven of these Stations are solely staffed by retained firefighters under the command of a wholetime Officer. Although retained staff are classified as part-time, due to the majority of them having other primary occupations, they do provide much of their spare time either attending incidents, working, training or, they remain available for call which means they must be able to attend the Station within five minutes.
Non-Uniformed Support Staff
Non-Uniformed personnel are part-time or full-time members of staff working in various sections at Fire Service Headquarters or, on Fire Stations.
Our authorised establishments are as follows:
Number of Staff |
 | | 2005/06 | 2006/07 |
| Wholetime Firefighters | | 379 | 378 |
| Retained Firefighters | | 168 | 168 |
| Control Room Staff | | 26 | 26 |
| Non-Uniformed Support Staff | | 97 | 81 |
| Emergency Planning Staff | | 11.5 | 11 |
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