MORE on-call firefighters are urgently needed to help keep the county safe.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is calling on everyday people to come forward and help save lives amid warnings its 24/7 cover is under threat due to shortages.

The service has about 240 full-time and 300 on-call firefighters on its books but needs about 50 more to help ease the burden on current staff and ensure it can reach emergencies in time.

An on-call, or retained, firefighter is someone who works a civilian job but signs up for a certain number of hours with their local fire service per week.

Assistant chief fire officer Grahame Mitchell, 44, said he wanted to train ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

He said: "We are predominantly an on-call service. We always have people retiring or moving out of town.

"The danger is we don't always have 24/7 cover. And then our full-time staff have to go out.

"If you sign up, our promise is that you will receive first class training and will work with fantastic professionals."

Dave Hemming, who was a firefighter for 34 years in Burford, said the shortfall in on-call firefighters could lead to increased response times, which could put more people’s lives at risk.

The 62-year-old added rural areas in Oxfordshire would be more affected compared to towns and cities if more on-call staff were not recruited.

He said: “Effectively, if you have fewer people then a call out may take longer and more lives could be put at risk - particularly when responding to crashes and you have that ‘golden hour’ get someone out of the car. Time is the essence.

"In places like Burford and Bampton, they are so far out from the city that you would not have a fire service there if it wasn’t for on-call firefighters."

Only Rewley Road, Slade Park and Banbury are crewed 24 hours a day by full-time firefighters, with the rest needing some form of retained cover.

The father-of-two urged more to sign up to the service, and added it was a “very rewarding” job.

He said: "Some people might feel intimidated, but I if they want to join, I recommend they go down to their local fire station and give it a try."

Watch manager at Witney Fire Station Mat Nind said the current shortage meant some firefighters were unable to take holiday due to being so short-staffed.

Mr Nind, 36, who works as a full-time firefighter at the Kidlington headquarters and then on-call at Witney during evening and weekends, said: "We've got two fire engines at Witney that are on the run 365 days of the year.

"To be able to do that we need a number of people in between shift patterns.

"We need a balance between personal life, family life and life at the service.

"It's really getting tighter on the weekends when people want time to themselves."

Mr Mitchell said it was also often a struggle to recruit, as many people did not believe they had the required skills to be an on-call firefighter.

He said: "One of the barriers is that people think they're not fit enough or strong enough to do this. But we want people to just find out what they can do.

"We don't just go to fires, we go to RTCs, flooding, medical emergencies.

"We do a lot to prevent as well. We look at dangers such as slips, trips and falls and we fit smoke alarms."

Mr Mitchell, who has been a firefighter for 24 years, is encouraging those interested to pop down to their local fire station during its retained firefighter night, normally a Tuesday or Wednesday from 7 to 9pm and find out more.

The service also hosts regular Have a Go days, so potential on-call firefighters can see if they have what it takes to be part of the service.

Anyone interested should also attend the service's Have a Go day on May 25.