FIRE chiefs are asking more volunteers to join the ranks of a town's part-time firefighters.

The town of Easingwold, and the surrounding area, is served by a retained team which drops everything to respond to 999 calls.

But unless more people join the service, the fire engine may have to be unavailable for certain periods of the day later in the year.

And that could add at least 15 minutes to arrival times at the scenes of blazes and crashes because crews would have to be called from Thirsk or Acomb in York.

The service's Hambleton group manager Owen Hayward said yesterday: "It's about to become a real problem unless more people volunteer."

Numbers have been restricted because volunteers have moved away from the area and some employers are unwilling to allow staff time off as the economy tightens.

Mr Hayward said: "That is understandable but we are saying to employers that there are benefits to them from the training we give the volunteers."

The Easingwold station responds to about 120 calls a year, some of them serious.

Volunteers must be 18 or more, fairly fit, literate and have reasonable eyesight. They must live or work within four minutes of the station.

They are paid a retainer of up to £2,136 a year and for training nights, which take up two hours every Wednesday, as well as the emergency call-outs they attend.

Anyone interested can contact North Yorkshire fire service on (01609) 780150.