FIRE chiefs are set to relax rules on recruiting retained firefighters in East Lancashire.

Currently, retained firefighters must live or work within five minutes of their station, to help with response times.

But Lancashire Fire Authority is now considering widening this out to seven minutes in Clitheroe, Bacup, Longridge and Earby to help recruitment.

Deputy chief fire officer Paul Richardson, in a fire authority report, said: “There have been occasions when it has been difficult to attract or recruit suitable retained candidates from within stations’ defined catchment areas.

“As a result, there have been instances of retained pumping appliances being unavailable to respond to incidents.”

He stresses that the difficulty has not prevented the service from deploying the quickest available fire appliances to incidents, which can mean diverting crews from nearby full-time stations.

Mr Richardson added: “There are a number of stations which are more geographically remote where, if an extended catchment area was applied, this would attract a quicker response.”

Last year it was found that the initial attendance at blazes in the Stacksteads area proved most problematic for Bacup’s Pennine Road station.

Fire targets in rural Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley proved the biggest challenge for Clitheroe and Longridge stations.

The overall level of activity at Earby has increased since the removal of the second engine at Barnoldswick.