Picture special: Glimpse into incredible West Yorkshire Fire Service photo archives

The emergency service has opened its vault of pictures to give people an insight into some of the incredible photos taken over the last 150 years.

The images are being revealed as WYFRS undergoes modernisation with a development at their Birkenshaw headquarters to include a state-of-the art urban search and rescue training centre.

The service’s photographer, Ken Wilkinson, said they still have some archived photos on negatives that have never been converted to pictures.

He said: “Our archive of pictures has now topped an incredible two million and we have taken this opportunity to have a look back over some of the most iconic and dramatic photos we have.

“Most of our photographs are in picture format, but there are still some that have been left as negatives, and they are just waiting to be converted. We wanted to celebrate this landmark number of photos by revealing some of the most dramatic and interesting ones we have.”

Photos that have been revealed show pictures from incidents across the whole of West Yorkshire, including Calderdale, North Kirklees and Wakefield, from the Summit Tunnel blaze near Todmorden in 1984 to the Pontefract corn field fire four months ago.

Ken, who worked as a coal miner before joining WYFRS, added: “I’ve been with the fire service for 25 years and have photographed some incredible incidents and events.

“I’m also pleased to have built up a great working relationship with the media as well. As a photographer and videographer, who can get close to an incident, there have been a number of times that newspaper photographers and TV crews have handed their cameras to me.

“They know that I can often get them those dramatic, up-close pictures that they aren’t able to do themselves due to fire safety rules.

“We are thrilled to be able to reveal some of our archived photos at a time when the service is going through an incredible modernisation programme.

“These old images show just how far we have come as a service thanks to our determination to constantly move forward – this is something that will never change and we are excited about entering a new era as a fire service.”

Here are 10 photos from the WYFRS archives of dramatic moments over the years, as well as old fire stations, from across Calderdale, Wakefield and North Kirklees.