Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire sign aid agreement Published April 23, 2010 By Staff Sgt. Brok McCarthy 421st Air Base Group Public Affairs RAF MENWITH HILL, United Kingdom -- RAF Menwith Hill and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services recently signed a mutual aid agreement, allowing the base to send the fire department out into the local community for rescue services and vice versa. The agreement, which was signed by Col. Johnathan Hughes, 421st Air Base Group commander, and Nigel Hutchinson, North Yorkshire Chief Fire Officer, is updated and signed once every three years. "Being a GSU, the closest military base is about four hours away, and if we need support, that does us no good because in four hours the war is over," said MHS Deputy Fire Chief Rodger Hancock. So we rely on North Yorkshire to be our support." He said the agreement is quite good for the base because North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services controls approximately 70 vehicles and 39 fire stations. So in the event of a major incident on base, the fire department will be able to get any and all of the help they require. Fortunately, in the past five years, off base firefighters have only been called to come on base twice, and both incidents were because someone called them rather than calling the base fire department. "When there's a fire, people get scared, so they dial 9-9-9 instead of 777-999 to get our fire department and that's fair enough because the bottom line is either way, you're going to get help," Mr. Hancock said. "Whenever North Yorkshire gets a call from Menwith Hill, they call our dispatch center calls us to inform us they are responding to a fire, and asks if we would like to handle it." The Menwith Hill fire department also responds to incidents off base. If North Yorkshire gets an incident call, their command center has the ability to look and see who the closest fire department is. If that happens to be Menwith Hill, they will call the base and assuming there is enough manning, the base will dispatch a response team. "Most of the time the calls come in, it's for vehicle accidents out on the A-59," Mr. Hancock said. "When we get there we will secure the scene, do some extrications, perform first aid and try to save lives. As far as how often we go out, it goes in spurts. Sometimes we get a couple calls a month then we will go a couple of months without getting any." After responding to an off-base incident, individuals will occasionally send letters to the fire department thanking them for what they do. "One of the ones we have posted right now is from someone who allegedly was doing some things he shouldn't have been doing and he wrecked his car," Mr. Hancock said. "We responded and pulled him out, then he sent us a letter saying 'thank you very much, I think you saved my life.' It's a really good feeling to get those letters." The agreement is unique within the UK; no other military instillation has one with its local community. "If someone on base without a mutual aid agreement calls the local authority, off-base personnel will always come and provide help for whatever they were called for," Mr. Hancock said. "The mutual aid agreement just clearly outlines what both parties can expect, who's going to pay for what, etc. A lot of counties opt out of having a formal agreement, North Yorkshire just happens to want to have the agreement."