Public consultation has begun over fire service plans to slash nearly £15 million from their budget.
A major review is underway to see what has to be cut, and what can stay.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority (GMFRA) say because of central government funding cuts, by 2020 it must cut £14.79 million from its operational budget.
78% of these cuts must come in the next two years.
Central to the plan going forward is to keep all 41 of its stations open at least 12 hours a day.
But the service admits they will be “less able to support large scale emergencies, which may lead to incidents escalating with increased health and economic impacts.”
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Cuts in services will also directly affect response times to 999 calls.
The authority must cut 285 firefighter posts over the next four years.
In order to balance the budget, they are also planning to remove one engine permanently from Salford fire station.
In total 10 engines will be removed from service by 2020.
Some fire engines would also be replaced by smaller Tactical Response Vehicles, which carry minimal equipment and are crewed by two firefighters.
For 12 hours overnight between 10.30pm and 10.30am – what GMF refers to as “low demand periods”, some fire engines at Eccles will not be immediately available.
Read: Eccles White’s Recycling plant fire still burning after 20 hours
Changes in Salford will result in average response times rising to 5 minutes 46 seconds in the day and 6 minutes 16 seconds at night, the service has said.
At a public event at Eccles Fire Station @Manchesterfire tweeted: “Someone in the room asked ‘is this going to affect your ability to prevent and respond to fires?’ The simple answer is ‘yes’.
The Fire Brigades Union told SalfordOnline.com today it was angry about the cuts but understood they were being forced on Greater Manchester Fire by a government hell-bent on austerity.
Gary Keary, Brigade Secretary said: “Salford has a growing population at the rate of 8 to 10 per cent every year. So why look to reduce fire cover?
“It makes sense that resources are going to be stretched over a wider area with the loss of jobs and services.
“These cuts are absolutely wrong but they are down to this government’s ideological austerity agenda.
“They will leave us with 1046 firefighters. 10 years ago Greater Manchester had 2,200, so that’s a 50 per cent cut inside a decade.
“We realise GMFRA cannot put forward an illegal budget, so we are willing to work with the service to help work through these changes.
“We do have serious concerns about the loss of pumps at night. I know from being a firefighter for 20 years that fires are not controlled by the clock. Some of the most serious fires happen at night, when people are in bed, or not particularly alert.
“This will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the service, if engines and manpower are getting pulled about to cover other areas.”
Numbers of fire calls have been falling in recent years but are now on the rise.
Between July and September 2015 road traffic collisions and floods rose by 28% compared with the same period the year before.
The draft corporate plan is online here, public consultation closes on Tuesday 5 May.
For information on consultations and the plan contact Roland Howard, Consultation and Engagement Officer on 0161 608 4169 or at consultation@manchesterfire.gov.uk.
