Doncaster fire calls response targeted
It was announced last week that the target response times for Doncaster fire crews to attend life-threatening incidents could be axed under new proposals.
Currently the target for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue is to attend 80 per cent of house fires or road crashes in six minutes or less which could also be extended to around 10 minutes after the brigade failed to hit the mark.
Also a third risk-based option – where communities traditionally prone to more fires have one target and those with fewer blazes a different one – is also being put out to public consultation from the beginning of this week.
The brigade – which has to save £9.5m over four years – has not met its self-set six-minute target once in six years and the report to the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority said research showed response times were ‘not the main factor in preventing fire fatalities’.
Is Saving Cats a Good Use of a Fire Crew’s Time?
A very interesting article published on the IFSEC Fire website last week looked at the issue of fire crew’s saving cats.
It was prompted from a story of a fire crew in Carlisle who rescued a kitten from the engine of a car – its new owners then christened it “Miracle.” It apparently took two and a half hours to save the cat which was completely stuck.
The question being asked is how much does it cost to send a fire engine out?
An exact figure of how much a 2.5-hour call out would cost the Cumbrian council tax payer is hard to work out, but the IFSEC Fire made some informed guesses and worked out that London Fire Brigade estimates that the 40,734 false call-outs they received in 2012 cost £37 million, so on that basis the average call-out costs them about £908 — a decent approximate figure we can use for Cumbria, given no similar figures are readily available.
Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service states in its 2012/13 service plan that the minimum crew size per appliance is four. Again, pay figures from Cumbria are hard to find, but Staffordshire FRS puts its basic hourly rate for a competent firefighter is £13.
So the time the staff spent attending the incident, plus the 6 minutes average time to respond to an incident and the 9-minute drive back would have cost the fire service another £143.
This adds up to a highly approximate £1,051 to save a cat from a car bonnet.
The question is put for you to decide if this is money well spent? To read more see ww.ifsecglobal.com.
South Yorkshire fire service misses response time target
It was announced earlier this week that South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue has never met its own time target for responding to emergencies, according to fire authority figures.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said lives were being put at risk but Assistant Chief Fire Officer John Roberts said they “have to be realistic about what we can achieve” and they would be setting a new target in consultation with the public.
He also commented that “fire does spread quickly, and a lot of the work we do is around prevention to stop the fire from starting in the first place. In terms of getting there as quickly as we can, we will always make that commitment to the public, but with the ongoing financial situation we have to be realistic about what we can achieve now and in the future.”
By 2015 the government will be reducing its funding by about £10m, and the fire authority last month agreed to increase its council tax precept by 1.98% to bring in an extra £400,000 in annual revenue.
Knottingley garage fire destroys a dozen cars
At the beginning of the week at least 12 cars were involved in a fire at a recovery garage in Knottingley.
The fire was reported in the early hours at 1.10am at Highway Recovery Ltd, on the A1 Business Park off Knottingley Road, near the A1.
Fire crews from Pontefract, Castleford, Featherstone, Garforth, Morley and other stations attended. A spokesman for the fire service said: “There were a dozen cars on the outside of the building, all of which were on fire and this spread to the building itself – there were also a number of vehicles inside the building but these were unaffected by the fire.”
Crews remained on the scene that day as the cause was still under investigation.
House fire: Smoke alarm saves five year old child from fire
Early on Saturday morning a 5 year old child was saved from a house fire because the family had a working fire alarm, the emergency services announced.
Fire crews from Newcastle Emlyn, Crymych and Cardigan attended the fire at Capel Iwan to find on arrival, the roof well alight.
A working smoke alarm woke the occupants and ensured their safe removal, including that of the five-year-old girl who was sleeping in the loft. If this alarm had not operated then then Watch Manager Emyr Jones said he was convinced that they would now be dealing with a tragedy.
This really goes to show how vital a working smoke alarm can be in saving lives. If you haven’t got one, please get one today or if you have one make sure you test it and it is working correctly.