Your monthly newsletter from West Midlands Fire Service
Hi there,
Welcome to November's edition of our monthly newsletter from West Midlands Fire Service.
In this issue, we cover safety around bonfire night, including bonfires and fireworks. We've also got helpful links and tips about road and e-bike safety and a some recognition of the wonderful staff in Staffordshire and West Midlands Fire Control, who work diligently behind the scenes to help keep our communities safe.
Whatever you're up to this November, stay safe!
West Midlands Fire Service
Firework safety
Bonfire Night is nearly here, and we know many of you will be celebrating with fireworks this week and over the weekend. We’d always recommend going to an organised display, but if you’re planning to use fireworks at home, please follow these simple safety tips:
✅ choose one responsible person to handle the fireworks ✅ avoid drinking alcohol if you’re in charge of lighting them ✅ light each firework at arm’s length with a taper, and keep everyone at a safe distance ✅ keep children and pets well away from fireworks at all times ✅ never return to a firework once it’s lit - even if it hasn’t gone off, it might still explode unexpectedly.
✅ keep bonfires small and manageable ✅ never leave a bonfire unattended ✅ build your bonfire away from buildings, trees, and fences ✅ have water or a hose nearby for emergencies
Also, a reminder: the fire service will only attend bonfires that are out of control or unattended.
November marks Men’s Health Awareness Month, and we are proud to be supporting a series of activities to get us all talking about men’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Men’s Health Awareness Month focuses on increasing awareness about the various health challenges men may encounter throughout their lives such as prostate and testicular cancer, heart disease, and mental health concerns, including suicide prevention.
We have a dedicated International Mens Day event at our HQ, seminars with our brigade GP, and we’ll also be supporting ‘Movember’.
Keep an eye on our social media channels throughout November for more details and content.
International Control Room Week 2025
Last week, we celebrated our colleagues who work in our control room, as part of International Control Room Week 2025.
They're the calm voices behind every 999 call we receive and faces you'll probably never meet, but who will always be there when you need them. In the past year alone, they have:
📞 taken over 87,000 calls 🚒 of which more than 42,000 have resulted in incidents attended 👁️ sent over 22,000 requests to use 999Eye - a vital piece of software that helps them what’s happening at incidents before crews arrive.
Simply put, without them, we couldn't operate and we think they're well worth a mention in this month’s newsletter.
We've made several pleas across social media recently, calling people to focus on the road when they're driving, with specific instruction to not use a mobile phone when behind the wheel.
It only takes a second's distraction for something serious to happen - and we promise, that no video, text, WhatsApp or alert would ever, ever be worth the consequences if you lost focus after choosing to go on your phone.
E-Bike Safety
November 8th marks the one-year anniversary of the deaths of a young couple from Coventry called Natasha and Karlo. They died after a devastating fire caused by an e-bike battery tore through their home, also claiming the lives of their two dogs.
We'll be proudly represented at several remembrance parades across the West Midlands this month, on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.
On Tuesday 11 November at 11am, our Chief Fire Officer, Simon Tuhill, will lead a two-minute silence at our headquarters, with staff across our stations and other sites also parading in memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
