WYF&R Control Units

Control Units Now Command Units

West Yorkshire Control Unit from 1970's

The first Control units that were used by West Yorkshire and certainly the first that I remember were the Ford 'D' Series vehicles. These were based on a Ford D1010 chassis with bodywork by both the Brigade Workshops and Angloco in Batley. The Fire service had two appliances of this type, one based at Fire Service Headquartes and the other at Keighley fire station. The purpose was to provide cover at both ends of the county. These appliances were identified by there callsigns, 0A/30 being the Keighley based machine and 0/30 the one at FSHQ. During the 70's the brigade was segmented into Divisions with the Bradford Division, 'A' Division which included Keighley was hence the 0/Alpha 30 callsign (0A/30). Fire Service Headquarters has always used a zero (0) callsign, hence Zero/30(0/30). I dont have any stand alone images of either machines other than a later picture taken towards the end of 1980's when one had been repainted red. The registration numbers of these machines followed on KWY 734K and KWY 735K. The 734K machine was the first to be disposed of in the late 70's but KWY 735K lasted until 1982 after its respray and new lease of life.

These images are of KWY 734K are at operational incidents . The Control Unit attended any MP x 5 or over
Images from left to right, Bradford, Batley, Huddersfield.

KWY 735K The Control Unit for West Yorkshire Until 1982 Here seen in red livery.

At the same time as the above unit was operating, it ran in tandem with another appliance a Breathing Apparatus Tender. both machines went to any MP x 5 or over anywhere in the county. These appliances were both manned from FSHQ at Birkenshaw in the place that is now used by driving school.

Above can be seen both Control Unit and BA Tender at an incident at Bradford and the BA Tender after its respray outside Dewsbury fire station.
The Breathing Apparatus Tender reg.no. LNW 880V is a Ford 'A' Series 0610 with bodywork by Angloco of Batley. This appliance went on the run in 1980 and attended many incidents throughout the county. When these appliances were re-organised whilst being still based at FSHQ they were given new callsigns. The BA Tender used 7517 and the Control Unit used 7518.

In 1982 the next new appliance on the scene was to replace the now ageing Control Unit.This was replaced by another Ford VWR821X similar in style to the BAT and also based at Birkenshaw. This Ford 'A' Series 0610 bodied by Angloco of Batley went well along side it's counterpart but proved rather small inside whilst in operation at incidents.

Control Unit at FSHQ Control Unit and BAT at Incident Tyre Fire Leeds

In 1992 came the big change, the move away from conventional appliances and the introduction of a POD Modular system. This involved a number of prime movers based around the brigade area with Pods and support pumps which would back up where and when needed. The Control Unit's and BAT's could not escape this new move towards greater efficiency for the brigade. The first unit was called a Command Support Unit and provided on site control and communications as before, but this time in a demountable unit. This appliance was based at Cleckheaton fire station, a central location for the brigade area. The BAT was made redundant as a Pod equipped with breathing apparatus re charging facilities became available, this was known as an Incident Support unit.

This was the first Volvo prime mover with CSU pod (J792 GJX) This prime mover now has the registration WY1 which was taken off the Fire Service coach when it was withdrawn from service.

This is the Command Support Unit in operation at Allied Colloids fire in Bradford. The ariel extended and with its generators in use providing the power, now self sufficient can link with Control at Birkenshaw as well as supporting fireground communications on a seperate radio network. Fitted with Fax and mobile telephone capability once the Command Support Unit is set up, reduced radio traffic from any major incident kept the main scheme radio clear for more routine radio traffic.Supporting the CSU would be 2 Pumps one usually from Cleckheaton and another practised in CSU support from a station nearest the Incident. Although a new concept computer equipment is quite delicate in nature and due to the rolling on and off the prime mover, it would become unstable and problems started to arise. It also took some time for the appliance to be set up once arriving at the fireground. If the prime mover had another demountable unit on board then it had to return to base to collect the CSU another delay. Various changes to soften the loading and unloading of the pods were tried and in 1995 a replacement for the 1st unit was brought into service. All this taken on board changes were on the way again.

In 2001 after a build by West Yorkshire Fire service workshops a new Command Unit was born

The Brigade has returned to it's favourite type of Control unit after it has gone full circle over the years. This 'Command Unit' as it is now called is based at Batley fire station and attends with it's support pump as before and with a back up pump from the nearest trained station to the fireground.

This appliance attends incidents that are 2nd Alarms (6 pumps or over).There is second Command Support Unit, this is a pod and is still on the run at Cleckheaton as a spare.