THE retained firefighter model is no longer sustainable in Mid and West Wales, the region’s chief fire officer has warned.

Roger Thomas said younger people weren’t replacing older retained firefighters – trained volunteers who are paid for each incident they respond to – and that this trend only seemed to be heading in one direction.

Mr Thomas, who was addressing a Carmarthenshire Council meeting, also said Powys didn’t have any full-time firefighters at all based there.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service currently has 702 full-time equivalent posts for retained firefighters – but the current cohort actually in the field is 574.

It has just under 400 full-time firefighters.

Mr Thomas said the availability of retained firefighters in the region at any one time had dropped from 90 to 95 per cent a few years ago to 83 per cent. “That is a real area of concern for me,” he said.

“That line is only going down.

“In my view, it’s unsustainable.”

Mr Thomas said the fire service had tried measures to recruit retained firefighters, such as liaising with local employers and offering courses, but something more radical is needed.

“This is a generational problem,” he said.

“It’s not going to be fixed in a year.”

Mr Thomas said no retained firefighters were “getting wealthy”, and there were proposals to make the role more attractive in that regard.

He said the retained firefighter model had a “built-in delay” in terms of response times because the volunteers had to get to their local fire station to answer a call-out.