A FIREFIGHTERS' union has raised concerns about a scheme that could see firefighters, and not police, called to deal with "concerns for safety."

Currently if Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff have concerns about an individual, but cannot access their property, the police are their main support. They are often called to gain entry to homes, by means such as knocking down doors.

A proposed six month pilot would see West Yorkshire Fire Service replace police as the main supporting agency. But the Chair of the local Fire Brigade's Union branch said firefighters are very "guarded" about the idea, and fear it could lead to firefighters, and engines, tied up "checking if Mrs Miggins is OK" rather than dealing with fires.

The proposals will be discussed by West Yorkshire Fire Authority's Executive Committee on Friday.

A report into the pilot scheme says: "On-going austerity measures continue to drive the search for greater effective ways of working through partner agencies.

"The deployment of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service resources could enhance service delivery by reducing the response time in support of Yorkshire Ambulance Service and thereby decreasing, with a view of eliminating, the demands placed on West Yorkshire Police for attending such incidents."

It says the change would "ensure patients get the required care as quickly as possible"

Although there are no estimates of how many fire fighter call outs the changes would lead to - the report points out that a similar pilot in South Yorkshire led to 100 call outs a month.

Dave Williams, chairman of the Yorkshire branch of the FBU, said: "We are very guarded about this type of collaboration.

"We've heard of incidents in South Yorkshire where fire crews have turned up to the house of someone who has schizophrenia and was self harming with a huge knife. It then puts the fire crews who are called out there in a very difficult position.

"If this is because there aren't enough police to attend these incidents, the question should probably be why isn't enough money being spent on policing.

"We're very guarded because we think the safeguards are just not there There needs to be safeguards in place to protect our members from risk, and we're not convinced they are there."

He added: "It may be a crew is called out because Mrs Miggins hasn't been seen for two weeks. They could get there and the ambulance has to be re-routed to an emergency. They then have to either wait for another ambulance or decide whether to knock the door down. It could be they then have to wait for police to come to secure the building. The whole thing might mean a crew is tied up for two or three hours."

The authority meets at 10am on Friday at the fire service's headquarters in Birkenshaw.