- “Now, who needs the fire service?”
- ―Station Officer Steele when there is an emergency in the original series
Basil Steele, later known as Norris Steele in the CGI series, is the Station Officer of Pontypandy Fire Station. His main job is being officer in charge of the station and his crew members known as a watch.
In the original series and the fifth series, Steele would attend and take charge at emergencies with the other firefighters and give out commands at the scene. Since the sixth series, he is mostly confined to his office/control room doing admin work and rarely attends incidents.
In the CGI series, Steele is old friends with Horatio Boyce, who serves as chief fire officer for the Pontypandy Fire Service.
Biography
Steele was born and raised in Newtown; after completing high school, he began his career as a soldier in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regiment of the British Army, in which he served twelve years before retiring.
After a while, he started his firefighter training at the Newtown Fire Academy, along with Horatio Boyce. Upon completing training, they both began work at the original Pontypandy Fire Station (which is now the Railway Station) and operated on Bessie.
Steele soon got promoted to the position of Station Officer and transferred to the newer (present) fire station whilst Boyce was transferred to Newtown where he became Chief Fire Officer. A while after this, he was offered a promotion as the Deputy Chief Fire Officer in Newtown, but rejected the promotion as he wanted to stay and serve Pontypandy instead.
Personality
As a former Army non-commissioned officer, he insists upon a high standard of both hygiene and efficiency in the fire station. His catchphrase used to be "Now who needs the fire service?", but it later changed into "Action stations". Steele is generally portrayed to be strict and mature. He sometimes seems to gasp when an emergency comes in.
The CGI series mostly says true to this, but at the same time, Steele is not afraid to unleash the child within him in the series, showing an interest in kite flying and paper planes and also maintains a gentle rivalry with Chief Fire Officer Boyce. He also occasionally causes emergencies himself.
Basic Training
Further Qualifications
- Advanced Driving Certificate
Awards
- Medal of Outstanding Bravery
- 25 Year Long Service Medal
Voice Actors
- John Alderton (Series 1-4)
- John Sparkes (Series 5)
- David Carling (UK; Series 6 onwards)
- Dave Pender (US; Amazon Prime)
- Veikko Honkanen (FIN)
- Jerzy Kramarczyk (POL; Series 1-5)
- Stefan Knothe (POL; Series 6 onwards)
Trivia
- Steele was based of the character Captain George Mainwaring from the British sitcom Dad's Army. His relationship with Elvis Cridlington was inspired by Mainwaring's relationship with Private Frank Pike, who Elvis was based off.
- As Station Officer, he is the officer in charge of a team (known as a watch) at Pontypandy Fire Station, and will take charge at an incident if he attends.
- Before joining the Fire Service, he was previously an army non-commissioned officer.
- In the episode, Steele Under Par, he receives, a letter in clarification off his retirement from HQ, but they later phone and tell him to remain at the Pontypandy Fire Station.
- In The Great Fire of Pontypandy, it was revealed by Chief Fire Officer Boyce that he could have even become Deputy Chief Fire Officer, but he wanted to stay and serve Pontypandy.
- The initials for Station Officer Steele spell out SOS, but in the US his CGI name is FCS.
- In The Return of Norman-Man, he becomes the 2nd firefighter to ride Mercury.
- When he speaks in the fifth series, his moustache flaps.
- In the US dub of the CGI series, he is called Fire Captain Steele.
- In 2009, Station Officer Steele appeared with Sam, Elvis and Penny in Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band music video on "Children in Need". Although the models from Series 5 were reused for this video mainly made up of stop-motion television characters, the characters retained their voices from the recently established CGI series.
- Sarah and James's guinea pig was named Norris after Station Officer Steele's first name due to the fact its face resembled him due to the moustache Steele has.
- From the eighth series onwards, he speaks in a less stern/commanding voice.
- The tenth series is the most appearances of Steele out on emergencies since Series 5.
- He used to be a railway firefighter as Bessie was the vehicle he used.
- Despite retaining the rank of Station Officer, The rank itself was disbanded for all UK services in the early 2000's and replaced with the Watch Manager/Watch Commander ranks. The London Fire Brigade however reintroduced it in 2019.
- He does not put up with any of Norman Price's tricks and he is one of the adults in Pontypandy to tell him off whenever he catches him doing mischief.
- In No Nurse Like You, it is revealed that Steele has Nyctophobia (fear of the dark).
Episodes Station Officer Steele drove Jupiter
Episodes Station Officer Steele drove Venus
- Elvis Sings the Blues
- Heap of Trouble
- The Great Fire of Pontypandy
- Bronwyn's Millionth Customer
- Record Breakers
- Bus Trouble