The service would be created when the county of Greater Manchester came into being in 1974. Changing the name, from the previous
Manchester Fire Brigade, into
Greater Manchester County Fire Service . Around the late 70s to early 80s though,
Greater Manchester County Fire Service turned into
Greater Manchester Fire Service. the change in 1974 would happen to many other fire services across the united kingdom. with many brigades merging/dissolving. The name change in 2004, to
Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service, reflected the growing number of roles the service now has. Many services across the
United Kingdom would change to
Fire & Rescue Service. This change was inspired by new primary legislation for England and Wales, The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. The service was originally administered by the
Greater Manchester County Council, but when this was abolished in 1986, administration of the service was taken over by a joint authority of the ten
Metropolitan Boroughs of Greater Manchester, known as the "Fire and Rescue Authority". Five members are appointed by
Manchester City Council, two each by
Bury and
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Councils, and three each by the other seven borough councils of Greater Manchester. In 2017, the service came under considerable controversy on the night of the
Manchester Arena bombing due to arriving two hours later than the police after the bombing. A report by Lord Bob Kerslake found that GMFRS deployed units only at 00:15 after conversation was overheard of armed police being sent in to scout the area one-and-a-half hours earlier. Then-Chief Fire Officer Peter O'Reilly apologised for the delay in response, although blaming the
Greater Manchester Police for the delay, citing an "information vacuum" from the force and for not correctly liaising with the ambulance and fire services following the bombing. The service, alongside the
Lancashire fire service, were among the first responders to the
Saddleworth Moor fire on 24 June 2018, managing to extinguish the fire on the same day, a normal event said to happen on the moor on a hot summer's day, but because of the
heatwave starving the land of rain and thus drying the
peat, the fire reignited on the next day, soon burning out of control, and following a declaration of a major incident the day after that, requiring the evacuation of 50 houses nearby. With the service having never fought a moorland fire on the scale of this fire,
mutual aid was sought out from seven other fire services across the north of England, including
Cumbria,
Tyne and Wear,
Nottinghamshire,
Humberside and
Warwickshire, and following a request from assistant chief fire officer Dave Keelan, military assistance came to help extinguish the wildfire, of which it eventually was declared three weeks later on 18 July. A
similar fire on
Winter Hill, north of
Bolton in
Lancashire, breaking out on 28 June and being declared under control on 16 July, a merger of two previous wildfires that directly threatened, but never affected a
transmitting station on the hill, was also responded to by both the Greater Manchester and Lancashire services. ==Performance==