Avon Fire and Rescue Service
| Avon Fire and Rescue Service | |
|---|---|
 Avon Fire and Rescue Service area |
|
| Coverage | |
| Area | Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire |
| Size | 134,753 hectares |
| Population | Over 1,000,000 |
| Operations | |
| Formed | 1974 |
| HQ | Temple, Bristol |
| Staff | 1069 |
| Stations | 23 |
| Co-responder | Yes |
| Chief Fire Officer | Kevin Pearson |
| Deputy Chief Fire Officer | Jerry O’Brien |
| Website | Avon Fire and Rescue Service and FireTV |
| Fire authority | Avon Fire Authority |
Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) is the fire and rescue service covering the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire in South West England.
Contents |
[edit] History
Avon Fire Brigade was created in 1974, when Avon county was created. In 1996, the county was abolished and four separate unitary authorities were created. Administration of the service was taken over by a joint fire authority made up of councillors from the four unitary authorities. In 2004, the Fire And Rescue Services Act was passed. To better reflect the changing roles and responsibilities of the fire service, Avon Fire Brigade changed its name to Avon Fire & Rescue Service.[1]
[edit] Community Safety
The role of a modern fire and rescue service has increased from fighting fires to cover the core functions of 'Protecting, Preventing and Responding'. Avon Fire & Rescue Service now has a wider remit promoting community safety through events and education work, alongside attending a range of incidents and emergencies from road traffic collisions and fires, to flooding and chemical spills. The fire service aims to cut the risk of fire developing in the first place by promoting safety messages to local residents and encouraging people to have working smoke alarms.[2]
Avon Fire & Rescue Service runs community safety campaigns. The summer 2009 campaign, 'Be BBQ Safe', included a hard hitting interview with a BBQ fire burns victim who spent the previous summer in intensive care after using nitro to light his BBQ.
The Car Clear scheme was launched in 2001, with the intention of promptly removing abandoned vehicles from streets. This eliminates the possibility of arson attacks.[3][4]
[edit] Operations
Avon Fire & Rescue Service has a fleet of 79 appliances including 48 Pumping Appliances [22 Water Tender Ladders, 16 Water Tenders, eight Reserve Pumps and two Combined Aerial Rescue Pumps], four Aerials [three Turntable Ladders and one Hydraulic Platform], four Rescue Tenders, eight New Dimension appliances [one Incident Response Unit, one Detection Identification Monitoring Van and six Prime Movers] and 15 other Special appliances. 25 Trailers, Boats, Pods and Fork Lift Trucks are used operationally. Avon Fire & Rescue Service also utilise a fleet of ancillary vehicles. These include 47 cars, 20 vans, three PCVs, three MPVs, five 4x4s, one Control Emergency Evacuation Vehicle and one Fire & Emergency Support Service vehicle. 19 Trailers and one Balloon are also used non-operationally.
As part of the now-defunct FiReControl project, Avon Fire & Rescue's control room was intended switch over to the regional control centre in Taunton. Originally scheduled to take place in May 2010, the cutover date was revised to November 2011,[5] before the plan was formally scrapped in December 2010.[6]
On 1 January 2009, Yate Fire Station was upgraded to wholetime / retained status meaning that firefighters are ready to respond to calls 24/7. Previously, the station was day crewed / retained, which meant that the station was only crewed from 0800–1700. Outside this time, firefighters responded to the station from their homes or work places.
In 2009, Avon took delivery of the first Polybilt bodied Combined Aerial Rescue Platform (CARP). It was allocated to Patchway fire station.[7] A second Combined Aerial Rescue Pump is now with Avon at Bedminster fire station and is due to go into service in February 2011.
In 2010, Avon took delivery of two smaller pumping appliances on 12-tonne chassis instead of the usual 15-tonne chassis. This is due to the 15-tonne having access problems to some roads. Both were allocated to Clevedon and went into service in January 2011.
In 2011, Avon took delivery of three full sized pumping appliances. Two were allocated to Speedwell and one to Southmead and went into service in June 2011.[8]
[edit] Fire stations
Avon Fire & Rescue operates 23 fire stations, of which 11 are crewed day and night (wholetime) and the remainder are crewed by retained firefighters who live or work near to their fire station and can arrive there within five minutes of a call being received. Avon also operate out of the Severn Park Joint Training Centre in Avonmouth. The breakdown of stations is as follows:
| Station Number | Location | Type | Appliances |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02 | Thornbury | Retained | 1 WrL, 1 WrT |
| 03 | Yate | Wholetime/Retained | 1 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 CSU |
| 04 | Patchway | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 CARP, 1 DIM |
| 05 | Avonmouth | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 MRT, 1 WelU, 1 RailRU |
| 06 | Southmead | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 L4V & HLTr |
| 07 | Portishead | Retained | 1 WrL, 1 WrT |
| 08 | Pill | Retained | 1 WrT |
| 09 | Temple, Bristol | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 TL, 1 RT, 1 LiRU, 1 BASU |
| 10 | Kingswood | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 CU |
| 11 | Speedwell | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 HP, 1 OSU |
| 12 | Bath | Wholetime/Retained | 2 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 TL, 1 RT, 1 WrSU & IRB |
| 13 | Keynsham | Retained | 1 WrL |
| 14 | Brislington | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 ERU |
| 15 | Bedminster | Wholetime | 1 WrL, 1 CARP 1 WrSU & IRB, 1 SWrR |
| 16 | Nailsea | Retained/Day Crewed (USAR) | 1 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 USAR, 1 HVPU |
| 17 | Clevedon | Retained | 1 WrL, 1 WrT |
| 18 | Weston-super-Mare | Wholetime/Retained | 2 WrL, 1 WrT, 1 TL, 1 RT, 1 ATRU & HCft, 1 IRU |
| 19 | Yatton | Retained | 1 WrL, 1 L4V & HLTr |
| 20 | Chew Magna | Retained | 1 WrT |
| 21 | Radstock | Retained | 1 WrL |
| 22 | Paulton | Retained | 1 WrT |
| 23 | Blagdon | Retained | 1 WrL |
| 24 | Winscombe | Retained | 1 WrT, 1 L4V & WelTr |
| 30 | Driving School | Training | 2 WrL, 1 WrT |
[edit] Appliances
- All Terrain Rescue Unit & Hovercraft (ATRU & HCft)
- Breathing Apparatus Support Unit (BASU)
- Combined Aerial Rescue Pump (CARP)
- Command Support Unit (CSU)
- Command Unit (CU)
- Detection Identification and Monitoring (DIM)
- Environmental Response Unit (ERU)
- High Volume Pumping Unit (HVPU)
- Hose Layer Trailer (HLTr)
- Hydraulic Platform (HP)
- Incident Response Unit (IRU)
- Line Rescue Unit (LiRU)
- Major Rescue Tender (Major Rescue Tender)
- Operational Support Unit (OSU)
- Rail Rescue Unit (RailRU)
- Rescue Tender (RT)
- Swift Water Rescue (SWrR)
- Turntable Ladder (TL)
- Urban Search and Rescue (USAR)
- Water Safety Unit & Inshore Rescue Boat (WrSU & IRB)
- Water Tender (WrT)
- Water Tender Ladder (WrL)
- Welfare Trailer (WelTr)
- Welfare Unit (WelU)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "History". Avon Fire & Rescue Service. http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/Avon/About+us/History.htm. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/avon/your+safety
- ^ "Car removal plan beats torchings". BBC News. September 17, 2002. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/features/crime_day/firebrigade.shtml. Retrieved January 23, 2012. "[...] in 2001 Avon Fire Brigade embarked upon its Car Clear scheme to remove abandoned vehicles from Bristol's streets as soon as possible."
- ^ "Press Release - Car Clear saves Avon taxpayers over £6.5m". Avon Fire and Rescue Service. June 6, 2007. http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/Avon/News/Prs%20Rls%20-%20Car%20Clear.htm. Retrieved January 23, 2012. "Martin Glanvill, Arson Task Force manager, said: "Car Clear has been a huge success over the last six years and during this time we have seen a big reduction in the number of vehicle fires. [...]""
- ^ http://www.swfirecontrol.co.uk/whatisfirecontrol.asp
- ^ "Control room scrapping 'will help Devon and Somerset". BBC News. 20 December 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12043791. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
- ^ http://www.polybilteurope.com/news/view/102
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1B55ED1B-83DB-4F34-8F40-EC92CBAE76BD/0/AFAAgendaandReports171210.pdf
[edit] External links
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