Plans to stop sending firefighters to many automatic fire alarms have been scrapped after crews branded the idea “very dangerous”.
Avon Fire and Rescue Service proposed halving the number of engines dispatched to nighttime incidents from two to one, with none at all attending alarms during the day unless they were deemed “high risk”, such as in care homes.
But following concerns from staff and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) during eight weeks of public consultation, the service has made a U-turn and abandoned the plans.
One crew will continue to be sent to automatic alarms between 6am and 9pm, while two fire engines will be sent from 9pm to 6am when most people are asleep.
Avon Fire Authority approved the revised proposals on Tuesday, March 26, along with a change to the way the service responds to 999 calls.
It means crews could be pulled away from minor incidents to help tackle emergencies that threaten lives or properties.
Currently, response times are based purely on geography and population, but calls will now be assessed around risk so that priority is given to threats to life or a fire in a property, which is more in line with the way the ambulance service works.
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Station manager for business continuity and emergency planning Justin Hobbs told fire authority members: “With regard to concerns around the proposed changes to our automatic fire alarms response, in the initial draft document it said we would send one fire engine at all times to sleeping and high-risk properties.
“We will change that so we will send one fire engine during daylight hours between 6am and 9pm, and we will upgrade that to send two fire engines from 9pm to 6am.
“That will give us additional firefighters during nighttime hours so if an incident did occur, we’ve got that weight of attack to deal with it.
“Those changes were proposed so we can use our resources better to respond to the community to make them safer and ensure our staff are safer because it gives them additional time to carry out their training.“
Chief Fire Officer Mick Crennell said: “Some fire services in the UK do not respond to any automatic fire alarms.
“We’re probably the only fire service that responds to all fire alarms.
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“There was challenging feedback, quite strongly from staff and from the FBU, to say that if we go to a high-risk premises where there is sleeping accommodation during nighttime then we probably need more than one vehicle to deal with that incident, and I’m happy to respond to that.”
The FBU said in a letter during the consultation period that not responding at all or sending only a single fire engine during nighttime and to high-risk locations “increases the risk to firefighters, the public and the environment”.
“We see this a very dangerous approach, and one which we are against and as such urge the fire authority to seriously reconsider,” it said.
The fire service attends an average of 4,131 automatic fire alarms a year, which is 37 per cent of all incidents.
More than 98 per cent of them are false alarms.
