THE head of West Midlands Fire Service has hit out at claims in a national newspaper that the organisation is "scandal-ridden".

Oliver Lee, chief executive of WMFS, told a hastily-convened press conference that he "objected to" a report in The Sun newspaper calling the brigade "scandal-ridden" in relation to the death of its previous chief Wayne Brown, who was found dead at his home in January and the death of a retired employee at Oldbury Fire Station on Monday (July 15).

Mr Lee, who became head of the service in March, and took the unusual step of calling a press conference in response to the national news article, said: "I don't accept that it's 'scandal-ridden' and nor will it be during my tenure here."

He was speaking at the WMFS headquarters in Birmingham today (Tuesday July 16) after the death of a former employee Ian Revell at Oldbury fire station in the early hours of yesterday (Monday June 15).

The death is not being treated as suspicious.

The service's previous chief Wayne Brown was found at his home in January, which Mr Lee called an "utter tragedy".

Former chief Wayne Brown was found dead at his home Former chief Wayne Brown was found dead at his home (Image: West Midlands Fire Service)

An inquest into the 54-year-old's death was opened at Birmingham and Solihull Coroner's Court in February.

At the time of his death, Mr Brown was being investigated over claims on social media relating to his academic qualifications, according to reports.

His death is also not being treated as suspicious.

Mr Lee said: "There is no correlation between the tragedies."

He said that Mr Revell's death followed the deaths of five other people in the service over the past ten weeks.

He said three of these had been serving members of staff who had died of natural causes, two had been recently-retired employees and one had been the spouse of a serving employee.

He said the "organisation was hurting" and the mental health of employees was "absolutely crucial."

Mr Lee said: "This organisation is a responsible, uniformed, emergency public service paid for by public money and every day it does its level best to protect the people of the West Midlands."

The fire service is flying flags at half-mast in tribute to the loss of Mr Revell.