Fire service unveil custom engine for Leeds Pride Parade

Friday, 3 August 2018 07:00

‘Fire doesn’t discriminate and neither do we’ are the words embossed on the lockers of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s (WYFRS) newly customised fire engine, unveiled at the service’s headquarters in Birkenshaw yesterday (2 August).

The modified engine will be taking part in this year’s Leeds Pride Parade, Yorkshire’s largest annual celebration of LGBT+ life, which takes place on Sunday 5 August.

The idea for the pride lockers was coined by WYFRS’s recently formed ‘Inclusion Action Group’ (IAG). The group, started by several employees, was set up with the aim of improving the service’s practice and culture on all things diversity and inclusion.

Diversity Projects Officer Chris Davey said: “We are seeking to improve our relations with, and opportunities for, underrepresented groups within our own staff and in the communities we serve.

“Among operational firefighters LGBT+ communities are significantly underrepresented. We have modified one of our fire engines in order to express a commitment to changing this representation, to promote the message of inclusion and that we as a service do not discriminate.”

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