Group Manager Peter Higgins has overall responsibility for this fire station and can be contacted about general matters regarding this station. Peter is based at Barrow & South Lakeland Area Office, Phoenix Road, Barrow in Furness LA14 2NS.

Telephone:  01229 615723

Email: peter.higgins@cumbriacc.gov.uk

The village of Coniston is situated in the south of the Lake District National Park, nestling among the mountains at the head of Coniston Water. The population of the village and surrounding area is approximately 3,500 people. The population quadruples during the holiday season.

The station is staffed by 10 firefighters employed on the retained duty system and has one fire appliance.

The old fire station was a wooden garage and petrol station requisitioned during the Second World War. The current station was opened in 1955.   Coniston Fire Station has won a gardening award in the Cumbria in Bloom competition for the best kept public building.   

The station provides fire cover to most of High Furness, a large remote rural area of approximately 20,000 hectares, including the picturesque conservation village of Hawkshead. The station area is bounded by high fells to the north and west, Windermere to the east and the agricultural land of the Rusland and Crake valleys to the south.

The risks are mainly residential, however there are a large number of hotels, guest houses, hostels, outward bound centres and other types of holiday accommodation throughout the area. Other industries include tourism, hill farming and forestry. Grizedale Forest covers a large part of the station area.   There are two historic houses of national significance in the station area, Brantwood, the home of the Victorian philosopher and artist John Ruskin, and Hill Top, the home of the famous children's book writer Beatrix Potter.

The station attends a range of incidents from chimney fires to the rescue of large animals, farm fires, fell and forest fires.   There are no trunk roads in the station area however there are a number of road traffic collisions every year on the congested, narrow, twisting roads around the lakes.

Personnel at Coniston Fire Station have always been keen fundraisers for the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund. Every year since 1963, they have held a Coffee Morning and a street collection on August Bank Holiday.

Like all other fire stations firefighters are actively involved in a wide range of community safety activities including home safety visits and road awareness training.