ENGLAND — Samaritans has written an open letter to fire minister Samantha Dixon calling for mandatory suicide prevention training for firefighters in England, after suicide-related callouts to fire services tripled over the past decade. The charity asked Dixon to ensure firefighters receive the same level of training and resources as their policing colleagues.

Fire services in England attended 3,250 suicide-related callouts in the year ending September 2025, the equivalent of 62 a week. That compares with 997 callouts in 2009-10, when records began. Firefighters currently receive no formal mandatory training on how to intervene when someone is in a suicidal crisis.

The fire service is called to a suicide-related incident when specialist skills or equipment are needed, such as breathing apparatus or equipment for working at height or in water. Paramedics and police also attend such scenes. Earlier this year, the government announced it was mandating protected time for trauma and suicide prevention training for new police recruits.

Elliot Colburn, public affairs and campaigns manager at Samaritans, said firefighters had reported feeling unprepared. "People with this experience are telling us they don't feel equipped with the training on dealing with someone in suicidal crisis," he said. "The data is pretty clear that once someone has undergone a form of suicide prevention training, their confidence in making an intervention and potentially saving a life skyrockets," Colburn said.

Mark, a firefighter in the West Midlands for almost two decades, attended suicide-related callouts only rarely at the start of his career. He has been to five such incidents in the past year. "We're attending more and more suicides or suicide attempts, and it's starting to take a bit of a toll. Quite often we're first on scene, and we have to intervene or at least attempt to. When you're waiting for backup and other trained professionals, it can be quite stressful and there's a lot of pressure on you to act," he said.

Mark drew a comparison with fire prevention work. "Fires are actually on the decrease quite significantly, but special service calls like suicides are rising. We've done a lot of prevention work on fire over the last 20 years, going into schools and delivering that message, which clearly shows that prevention is better than the cure, and that's what we're hoping to achieve here," he said.

There were 5,717 registered suicides in England in 2024, 61 more than in 2023. The number of registered suicides has been increasing since 2017. Anyone in the United Kingdom can contact Samaritans free at any time on 116 123.