Calls for East Riding businesses to employ more on-call firefighters

Tony Clark's been given an award for starting the scheme 10 years ago by Humberside Fire and Rescue

Author: Karen LiuPublished 15th Aug 2021

There are calls for businesses in the East Riding to employ more on-call firefighters.

It is as Tony Clark, who IS one, has won an award from Humberside Fire and Rescue.

He is also employed by kitchen manufacturer Howdens along with others.

The initiative that encourages people to become on-call fire fighters at work, was set up 10 years ago by Tony after he witnessed a fire at Howdens which could not be attended to for two hours due to how remote it was.

Tony, and his team of on-call firefighters, have helped save 60 lives, 14 over the last year alone, and attended 1,791 fire calls and 1,037 medical calls, since the scheme was created.

Tony said: "It's a privilege to get the award and I kind of accept it on behalf of my colleagues in the Fire and Rescue Service and in particular the other members of my team. Yeah, absolutely privileged as we are to serve our communities.

"I would say to any company out there to support on-call firefighters. You might have someone who already is one, you might have people that you just don't know about that might actually want to be one. It's such a rewarding thing to do both for the individual and for the company involved."

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