Southam has had a Fire Station for over 150 years and is one of the oldest, if not possibly the oldest, in the country. It has been manned by local towns people for all of that time. It started out as a volunteer station, and was changed to a Retained station back in 1941 when the National Fire Service was formed which formalised all the local, volunteer, auxiliary and private fire services. Relatively soon after followed the Fire Service Act 1947 which formalised things even further.

Being a 'Retained' station means that ALL the operational personnel have other full-time jobs and provide their services either outside of those jobs, or even for some, during their full-time jobs.

Each crew member has a pager, called an Alerter, which is set off when a Fire Call is received. Each crew member that is 'booked on' (meaning they are available), then immediately responds to the Station within 5 minutes, (usually at Southam we manage 4 minutes or less). The crew then 'turnout' on the Appliance.

Retained Firefighters are all trained to the same standard as Wholetime, (full time) crews, so there is no difference in quality of service.

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Your crew lives and works amongst you, and are ready to respond whatever time of day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.