‘Devastating’ fire service cuts are leaving ’people less safe’ in mid and west Wales after figures revealed that 38 firefighter roles have been lost in just the last year alone.

According to new figures obtained by the Fire Brigades Union through a Freedom of Information request, there has been a seven per cent cut in the number of firefighter in mid and west Wales since 2010 - a drop of 85, with 38 of those coming since March 2020.

The union warned that declining firefighter numbers, coupled with increasing threats of wildfires and flooding, would mean that fire services may not be able to tackle all fires.

Cerith Griffiths, the Fire Brigades Union’s executive council member for Wales, said: “The public should be able to rely on the fire and rescue service to be able to deal with fires in their homes, with wildfires, with floods, with fires in their businesses and schools, but we cannot do that if we do not have the people to do it.

“That is particularly true when it comes to multiple large-scale incidents happening at the same time.

“I want to be clear: after years of devastating cuts to our fire and rescue service, and a further decline this year, there is a genuine chance that our fire and rescue service will not be able to adequately meet the challenges facing our communities.”

The union said the decline comes “against a backdrop of increasing challenges for Welsh firefighters”, with Welsh Government Climate Change Minister Julie James MS warning last week that “flood risk… is increasing as a result of climate change”, and the Climate Change Committee saying that Wales “can expect [wildfires] to become a major issue” if climate change continues unchecked.

The figures show that, across the UK, one in five firefighter roles which existed in 2010 no longer exist, with a fall in numbers of 11,598 since then.

The figures also outline the number of firefighters across Wales has declined since last year, with a fall of almost 450 firefighters since 2010.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “After years of huge government cuts and staffing falls, fire and rescue services in Wales are increasingly stretched.

“The cuts are weakening the day-to-day work of the fire and rescue service in every single area; they are making people less safe.

“They also pose a threat to the ability to respond to large-scale incidents - particularly if more than one were to occur at the same time.

“Our communities have the right to feel protected.

“We all want to be able to walk past fire stations and know that there are enough people in there to protect us.

“And firefighters will always do whatever they can to save lives.

“We need central government to end its attack on public service funding and we need the government in Wales to invest in our service for the new and emerging risks we face, including from climate change.”