There were several reasons to celebrate at the 200th West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service trainee course graduation ceremony today.

A total of 22 firefighters graduated, ready to keep the public safe across West Yorkshire, and to add to the excitement one used the ceremony to pop a big question to his girlfriend.

Following the water display ceremony, and in front of friends, family and fire officers James Edgar asked his girlfriend of five years, Helena Bancroft, if she would do him the honour of becoming his wife.

Helena was thrilled and immediately responded “YES!”

James said: “I’ve thought about proposing for a long time, and thought it would be a special way to do it after the ceremony today. But when my fellow trainees found out about it they insisted I should do it as part of the graduation display - in front of everyone!

“We got it all planned out, everyone was really supportive even to the point where they planned that they could turn the hoses on her if she did say no!

“But obviously I’m so happy she said yes – we’ve no plans for the wedding at the moment, we’re just going to enjoy being engaged for a bit.”

Alongside James and Helena’s happy news, awards were handed out for best watch, top trainee, and trainee’s trainee. The new recruits also demonstrated putting out a building fire, rescuing a casualty from a mock-up road traffic collision and extinguishing a car fire.

WYFRS is not currently recruiting full time firefighters – however is looking for on-call firefighters. On-call firefighters are skilled people from all walks of life who offer daytime, evening and/or weekend cover at on-call fire stations in addition to their normal, day-to-day commitments. Just like their wholetime counterparts, they work on the front line protecting their community. On-call firefighters are not based at station, but when on-call, individuals must be able to reach their station within five minutes of their pager going off.

If you feel inspired by the fire service's newest recruits and live or work in Featherstone, Mirfield, Ilkley, Mytholmroyd, Otley, Silsden, or Slaithwaite then visit joinwyfirefighters.com/

Or just call into your local station to have a chat with staff about the roles available.