New on-call fire-fighters are being sought and a change to retained appliance crew numbers is being trialled in a bid to make resources more available to respond to incidents across Staffordshire.
While “whole time” fire stations are staffed 24 hours a day, a number of the county’s sites are not.
These retained fire stations are instead covered by on-call firefighters, who are based nearby and respond when alerted to an incident.
But Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Chief Fire Officer Rob Barber said that the availability of on-call services has “always been a concern” throughout his time in the county.
Figures presented to a performance meeting this week revealed that between October 2022 and March 2023 retained service availability was just 51.09%, while alternative vehicle use, meaning a pump was not being used, enabled an extra 14.71% availability, however.
The report added:
“The main contributory factor for appliance unavailability at retained stations is the number of retained crew available, and the number of those retained crew that have the necessary operational training and qualifications to allow a deployment to an incident.
“This is the largest factor affecting total service availability.”
Mr Barber said changes in society were impacting on the recruitment of on-call crews.
“I’m pleading to the communities that if people are interested in becoming on-call fire-fighters please come and have a discussion with us.
“Society has changed since the 1930s and 1940s system we’re trying to operate in in 2023.
“The old village-type community where people lived and worked and stayed there generation after generation isn’t there any more, so we’re seeing a more transient workforce and we’re seeing younger people who don’t want to be tied down to being within five minutes of an on-call fire station.”
Chief Fire Office Rob Barber
He told the meeting a new system reducing the minimum crew for a retained appliance from four to three firefighters was set to be trialled from 1st June 1 in a bid to make them more available to respond to incidents.
“We’ve got to change the way we deliver our service.
“Currently if the appliance goes below four people available to ride it it’s taken off the run completely, so it wouldn’t be mobilised to a small fire such as a waste bin in the High Street for example.
“We are finding very often we’ve got three fully-qualified firefighters available that would be able to go out to certain incidents and to most incident types.
“Not on their own obviously, but if there is a whole-time appliance they can back up and add human resource to that incident, that will have a number of benefits to the organisation and to communities.
“Firstly, the communities will get a response – the response might not be able to deal with everything in its entirety, but that’s true of an incident today as a whole-time appliance could go out and need to call in more backup when they get there.
“For the large proportion of our organisation it’s been received really well. A lot of our on-call fire-fighters are saying ‘let us do it, we can do something’.”
Chief Fire Office Rob Barber
Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams said:
“People who have signed up to be on-call fire-fighters are absolutely committed to it and they are so frustrated when they can’t be busy.
“This opportunity to be part of a team, maybe two or three appliances at a site, back up work and prep work supporting colleagues, is key to keeping them engaged and retained in the service.
“I think this ‘riding in threes’ is really positive.”
Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams
A series of taster sessions are being held for anyone interested in becoming an on-call fire-fighter in the coming weeks, including one at Abbots Bromley Community Fire Station on 3rd June.
For more information and to book a place visit the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service website.
