Contact West Midlands Fire Service
There's plenty of ways to get in touch with us and we welcome feedback from our communities.
Contact form
The easiest way to get in touch with us is by using our contact form. You can submit a general enquiry, or a compliment, comment or complaint using this form.
We've provided some buttons below to some of the areas of our service we are asked about the most.
Prefer to contact us by phone?
We appreciate that sometimes it's easier to speak to us by phone.
You can contact our various departments, stations and teams directly, or if you're not sure, use our general contact number.
General Contact Number
03300 589 000Accounts
0121 380 6925Complaints
0121 380 6299Commercial Training
0121 380 6429Fire Safety
0121 380 7500Payroll
0121 380 6310Pensions
0121 380 6320Press Office
0121 380 6101Safe and Well
0800 389 5525Frequently Asked Questions
We get asked a lot of questions by our communities on a range of subjects.
You can search or browse through them here or visit our full frequently asked questions page to see more.
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FAQ Categories
If your smoke alarm is beeping intermittently, this normally means the battery is running low. It’s just a case of replacing the battery! If after doing this it’s still beeping, it may be that it’s faulty and you will need to organise a replacement. If you live in a rented property, your council, housing agency or landlord should be responsible for replacing this for you. If your fire alarm is a sealed unit with no replaceable battery, then either organise a replacement with the manufacturer (if within guarantee) or alternatively purchase a new one. If it was fitted by West Midlands Fire Service, please refer to the Fire Angel support site in the first instance to see if it’s a simple matter that can be resolved. If not, please contact us on 0800 389 5525 and we can organise an appointment for someone to replace it for you. If you are interested in one of our Safe and Well visits, where we can fit smoke alarms for free and do a general safety check on your home. To find out more and send us your details to book a visit, check out our Safe and Well area. If your alarm is going off as though there’s a fire, then regardless of whether you know what has caused it, you should dial 999 and ask for the fire service.
We want to be clear that the contingent decision process is separate from that of Remedy. This only relates to individuals who opted out or would have bought additional service but for the discrimination. The RSS will show any contribution adjustment and interest due. The contributions will also be subject to a tax relief adjustment. For some members, there may be an option whereby the scheme owes money to the member. In these circumstances, there will be a compensation payment which is subject to tax and interest adjustments. In all cases, pension contribution adjustments will be made before the pension and lump sum payment. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will make your remedy decision (regarding your pension and your contributions for April 2015 to March 2022) this year. Until you receive your RSS statement you do not need to do anything. However, the separate contingent decision should be given consideration now because the deadline for submitting claim forms is 30 September 2024.
On 1 October 2023, anyone in the pension for the remedy period (2015-2022) was automatically ‘rolled back’ to your legacy scheme, either the 1992 or 2006 scheme. Following this rollback, information will be made available to you about your benefit options for the remedy period through a Remediable Service Statement (RSS) during 2025. For members retiring from 1 October 2023 but before RSS is provided, benefit options will be provided upon retirement.
Unwanted electrical goods normally cannot be disposed of in your normal household rubbish. Instead, opt for recycling by taking them to designated recycling locations or contacting your local council for disposal instructions. Electrical devices, or batteries, with a crossed-out wheelie bin symbol, mustn’t go in household waste but can be disposed of at recycling sites at a large number of supermarkets and electrical retailers. We recommend using the Recycle Your Electricals website to identify disposal locations near you. It’s as simple as entering your postcode and then selecting the item you want to safely recycle or dispose of. Like other goods, batteries which have the crossed-out wheelie bin symbol on them must not be discarded in your normal household waste, but can be disposed of easily in battery recycling bins found at most supermarkets. Please tape up both ends of lithium batteries to help prevent fire. Never dispose of, or discard them in piles and never place them into fires, as they can explode. You can use the same Recycle Your Electricals website to find safe recycling stores or facilities near to you.How to dispose of old electrical devices safely
Lithium-ion batteries
Firefighters need to have a good level of strength and cardiovascular fitness, as well as a good level of stamina and flexibility to effectively carry out their roles safely. All our practical selection tests can be on viewed our website on the Firefighter Selection Process page. Here, you can see what’s required and work to improve your fitness, if you need to. These tests are designed to test all areas of your fitness, and you must be able to pass all of the tests to enable you to fulfil the role of a firefighter. Maintaining your fitness throughout your career as a firefighter is important, and the service will support you in doing this, while employed with us. A fitness test is carried out as part of your medical to determine if your aerobic fitness meets our standards of 42 V02 max. The test that we use to test this is the Chester Treadmill test.
We strongly discourage business owners from introducing a sleeping risk to premises by permitting anyone to sleep in a premises that is not designed to provide sleeping accommodation. Business owners should be mindful to prevent unauthorised sleeping on the premises, such as employees who have not requested permission, or contract cleaning staff. Further information on fire risk assessments for premises used as sleeping accommodation – which differ from normal commercial premises, can be found on the .gov website.