Number of firefighters in West Sussex drop by more than 200 in a decade
The Fire Brigades Union is warning fire and rescue services will not be ready for major threats to the UK.
There are now 209 less firefighters working in West Sussex compared to in 2010.
That is a 25 per cent drop, according to figures from the Home Office.
But, there has been an increase of 14 new firefighters between 2019 and 2020.
It comes as the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is warning fire and rescue services will not be ready for major threats to the UK without more firefighters.
Nationally, the figures found brigades have faced the COVID-19 pandemic with 11,237 fewer firefighters than in 2010 - a 19 per cent drop in numbers.
The combined threats of climate change related events such as flooding and wildfires, pandemics, terrorism, and the post-Grenfell building safety crisis will require the immediate funding for at least 5,000 firefighters in the next year, the FBU says, to ensure the fire and rescue service can tackle "the risks of today and tomorrow".
Without additional crews, the union has said the public face a "roll of the dice" every time a major incident occurs.
If the pandemic had broken out during mass-flooding earlier this year, the FBU has warned firefighters might not have been able to support the pandemic response.
The union also reports that the staffing shortage has caused many fire and rescue services to send out fire engines with just three firefighters on board, fewer than the minimum five required to safely perform a rescue or tackle a fire.
It comes as non-fire incidents have increased by 12 per cent over the last decade.
Firefighters responded to 162,251 non-fire incidents last year – more than the total number of fires.
Surges in flooding and assisting other agencies drove a six per cent increase from 2018-19 to 2019-20.
Earlier this week, the FBU launched its #FundTheFrontline campaign, in which firefighters and people are asked to write to their MPs "demanding urgent investment" in the Government’s one-year spending review.
Firefighters are major frontline responders to 11 of the 12 risks in the UK government’s national risk register, which includes pandemics; severe weather; coastal and inland flooding; major industrial accidents; as well as attacks on transport; crowded places and critical national infrastructure; and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) attacks.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said:
"Be it mass flooding and wildfires caused by climate change, huge post-Grenfell building safety challenges, terrorist attacks or pandemics, firefighters are an all hazards emergency service on the frontline protecting the UK from the vast majority of major threats.
"But a decade of devastating cuts means that we can only effectively handle one of these crises at a time.
"The brutal reality is that, if and when mass-flooding or another major emergency hits this winter, it could impact firefighters’ ability to aid the pandemic response, or respond to another major incident.
"Increasingly, each time one of these major emergencies break out, the public face a roll of the dice, hoping that more than one won’t come at once - and it’s only a matter of time until we lose that gamble.
"Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak need to recognise the scale of risk faced by the public and fund the frontline firefighters who keep people safe.
"We need at least 5,000 new firefighters immediately to repair some of the damage austerity has done to our service and prepare for the risks of today and tomorrow."