We’re delighted to be hosting the 2022 UKRO Festival of Rescue, pitting the very best of the UK Fire and Rescue Service against one another in the fields of vehicle extrication, water rescue, trauma care, rope rescue and urban search and rescue. We’re even adding a sixth event this year – UKs fittest firefighter – to test competitors’ strength and endurance.

The fact that the festival takes place in a public setting is a unique opportunity for the UKFRS to show the public an increasing important side of what we do as an emergency service. We’re planning on making it the most interactive and engaging UKRO event yet, making use of a site in central Birmingham that will have hosted major Commonwealth Games events just a few months prior.

While the Festival is of course an opportunity for fun and friendly competition, it is also an important way of driving up standards in vital rescue disciplines, learning lessons from one another and ensuring our services are highly prepared. We aren’t only involving our teams in the competition in September but are planning a whole “Summer of Rescue” with public events across our stations and the region to both develop our team’s skills and build momentum and interest in the event. You can find out more about that elsewhere on this site.

We are of course also aiming to exploit the event to promote our prevention and protection messages, develop new relationships with partners and sponsors, and encourage more people to consider the fire and rescue service as a career. Rarely do we get an opportunity to showcase our service on such a scale and in such a public manner – short of a major incident.

This event will only be successfully delivered through partnership, and we’re keen to engage with anyone who is interested in supporting us. Whether it is volunteering to support the planning and execution of the event or providing financial support through sponsorship, we’d be keen to hear from you. If you think you could support us to deliver a summer to remember, please take a look around this site where you’ll find more information about how to get involved!