Barrow Fire Station

Barrow's Phoenix Road fire station was opened in 1996 replacing the old central fire station in Abbey Road.   Covering the coastal town of Barrow with a population of 50,000 in some 20,000 households, the station was the first new one to be built by Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service since the service's formation in 1974.   It has five bays housing two fire engines, a 30 metre turntable ladder, a major rescue vehicle and an incident response unit.  

Barrow is headquarters for Barrow & South Lakeland Area of Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service and as well as providing first attendance to incidents in the station area, it also provides response to back up other stations throughout the area, indeed, the station's turntable ladder appliance is one of only two in the county.   Barrow personnel also crew the Incident Response Unit which is part of a national fleet of vehicles.

The site as well as containing the station and area headquarters, has a large drill ground with tower and comprehensive training facilities.   The area office section of the building doubles as an emergency control centre for the Furness & South Lakeland Area and as such would be utilised by responding agencies for a major emergency in that area.

Although Barrow remains predominantly a shipbuilding town with the BAE Systems shipyard specialising in submarine construction, crews from the station also train regularly on the more diversified risk sites such as the gas terminals, a paper mill and vessels in the dock system.

As with all fire stations in the county, firefighters based at Barrow are involved in a wide range of community safety activities which culminated in March 2006 with an award to the station of the High Sheriff of Cumbria's Award for '…great and valued services to the community.'   This was in particular for actions taken in central ward of Barrow where many properties were visited to carry out home safety checks and audits of back street areas carried out to ensure prompt collection of domestic refuse to avoid incidents of arson.

If you want any help or advice on safety issues contact the station on the number above or the community safety co-ordinator at the number below.

Telephone - 01229 407917

Email - jennifer.petcher@cumbria.gov.uk