Proposals to downgrade it to a retained station or cut back on full-time staff have been put together by Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. The suggestions are part of a risk management assessment of the service's northern area.

Oakham firefighter Tom Neal, a spokesman for the Fire Brigades Union, fears lives could be put at risk. He said: "Every option that is in there is a cut in the fire service for Rutland.

He said: "Reducing the level of cover could lead to an increase in response times when the speed of getting to an incident can be life-saving."

The fire service is considering whether to rely more on retained crews, who are on-call firefighters who live or work nearby and can respond quickly rather than full time staff based at the station.

The options being investigated are to mix whole time fire crews with day crews and retained firefighters; keeping full-time firefighters during the day with retained crews providing night cover; keeping two pumps at the station with day crews; making the station wholly retained with two pumps; or keeping full-time cover with one pump.

Head of community safety for the fire service Sean O'Donnell said: "The document is a recommendation to look at certain scenarios. It is a first step in looking at things – the beginning of the journey. Further work needs to be done to get a better picture of what needs to be done.

"We are in the business of public service to find the best way of delivering the service. It is incumbent on us as managers to be constantly reviewing it," said Mr O'Donnell, who was head of strategic planning when the document was prepared.