Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service considers response time changes due to shortage of on-call firefighters
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has outlined plans to cope with on-call staff shortages, including potentially scrapping the five-minute response time at “non-strategic stations”.
On-call firefighters – who are paid but often have other work or time commitments and carry pagers to alert them to an incident – provide a cheaper alternative to full-time staff, and support their full-time colleagues.
The service currently requires them to be available within five minutes when on-call and says it is “experiencing fundamental issues regarding recruitment and retention” of the part-time firefighters.
A report to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority says: “We frequently have numerous fire appliances unavailable because there are insufficient firefighters to crew them locally. This means we have to utilise neighbouring fire appliances to provide that cover.
“Due to the way we manage our on-call stations, this is done efficiently with little detriment to our communities.”
Three options to relieve the pressures have been suggested, which could all be implemented.
One option is to invest in appliances which can be crewed by fewer than four people, so allow smaller teams to respond to incidents while another option is to remove the larger 13.5-metre ladders from some or all on-call stations, where they are “rarely used”.
A third option being considered would extend the response time at “non-strategic stations” so as not to exclude candidates who cannot meet the current five-minute requirement. This includes stations in Burwell and Linton.
It is suggested with a response time of one hour, on-call firefighters could still relieve full-time staff responding to major incidents. This approach will be trialled in the summer to determine if it will work.
The options will be discussed on Thursday (June 20) at a meeting of the fire authority.
Response times from full-time fire crews would be unaffected.
The non-strategic on-call stations in Cambridgeshire are: Burwell, Gamlingay, Kimbolton, Linton, Littleport, Manea, Peterborough Vols, Sawtry, St Ives, Sutton and Thorney.
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