On the day that a new report suggested fire services could merge due a decade-long in a drop in emergency calls, Bradford district firecrews were hard at work tackling another dangerous smash on the M62.

Former national chief fire and rescue adviser Sir Ken Knight has proposed that the Government might unify the 46 local fire authorities under a single banner as part of a review of the £2.2 billion service.

Sir Ken’s report says there has been a 40 per cent fall in calls to fires, road accidents, flooding and other crises in the past ten years and accidental fire deaths at home are at an all-time low with 186 recorded in 2011/12.

However, costs and fire crew numbers have remained much the same since 2003.

He suggested that much of a firefighter’s role involved waiting for the call to action and that retained officers could often provide cover.

Meanwhile at Bradford Central fire station, watch commander Richard Lightowler described an ordinary day there.

He said: “It’s always a busy day.

“We start each shift with physical training, weights and circuits, then today we had a video and talk on how to cope with a crash involving a large, awkward wagon – how to make it safe and stabilise it.

“Then we went outside into the yard and worked on techniques to remove a trapped person from a car.

“That was suddenly interrupted by a call at 12.30pm for a pump to join Odsal, Cleckheaton and Morley at the M62 crash involving a hazardous HGV.

“So obviously we went straight from training about traffic accidents to the reality of coping with them,” said Mr Lightowler, who has 22 years’ service.

“It’s only constant, rolling training which allows us to be able to cope with changing emergencies,” he said.

“Recently we’ve been doing water rescue training and line training, which allows us to go down steep inclines and into sewers and such.

“And that’s on top of breathing apparatus skills or going out to do fire prevention work with domestic and commercial properties.”

Commenting on the Knight Report, West Yorkshire Fire Authority chairman, Councillor Mehboob Khan, said: “We have addressed financial and service challenges head on, by proposing long-term radical changes, which have not been easy decisions to make.

“West Yorkshire remains a low-cost high-performing fire and rescue service. However the authority still anticipates a significant funding gap, in spite of implementing most of the initiatives referred to in the review.”

The service’s Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling said: “The workforce have responded pragmatically to the changes we have introduced and continue to work hard to make West Yorkshire safer,” he added.

“However, I am anxious that the Service still faces a difficult future.”