| 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 | No |
| Chief Fire Officer | Kevin Pearson |
| Website | Avon Fire and Rescue Serviceand FireTV |
| Fire authority | Avon Fire Authority |
Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire in South West England.
The County of 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.[1] 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.
Contents |
Operations
Avon Fire & Rescue Service has a fleet of 84 appliances including 52 Pumping Appliances [23 Water Tender Ladders, 17 Water Tenders, eight Reserve Pumps, three Rapid Response Unit (two operational, one reserve) and one Combined Aerial Rescue Pump], four Aerials [three Turntable Ladders and one Hydraulic Platform], five Rescue Vehicles [two Rescue Tenders, two Major Rescue Tenders and one Line Rescue Unit] and 23 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 87 cars, vans and 4x4s. 22 Trailers and one Balloon are also used non-operationally.
As part of the FiReControl project, Avon Fire & Rescue's control room will switch over to the regional control centre in Taunton. Originally scheduled to take place in May 2010, the revised cutover is now November 2011.[2]
On the 1st 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. This meant that the station was only crewed from 0800 - 1700. Outside this time, firefighters responded to the station from their homes or work places.
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 .[3]
Avon Fire & Rescue Service runs several community safety campaigns a year. The summer 2009 campaign, 'Be BBQ Safe', includes a hard hitting interview with a BBQ fire burns victim who spent last summer in intensive care after using nitro to light his BBQ. You can find out more and watch the film at http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/avon/your+safety/be+bbq+safe/
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:
Wholetime
- 04 Patchway (Water Tender, Combined Aerial Rescue Pump and 'Detection, Identification and Monitoring DCLG van' )
- 05 Avonmouth (Water Tender Ladder, Water Tender, Major Rescue Tender, Welfare Unit and Rail Rescue Support Unit)
- 06 Southmead (Water Tender Ladder and Hose Layer)
- 09 Temple, Bristol (Water Tender Ladder, Water Tender, Turntable Ladder, Rescue Tender, Line Rescue Unit and Breathing Apparatus Support Unit)
- 10 Kingswood (Water Tender Ladder and Control Unit)
- 11 Speedwell (Water Tender Ladder, Water Tender, Hydraulic Platform and Operational Support Unit)
- 14 Brislington (Water Tender Ladder and Environmental Response Unit)
- 15 Bedminster (Water Tender Ladder, Two Water Tenders [one for Youth Scheme], and Water Safety Unit)
Wholetime / Retained
- 03 Yate (Water Tender Ladder, Water Tender, Command Support Unit and Rail Response Unit)
- 12 Bath (Two Water Tender Ladders, Water Tender, Turntable Ladder, Rescue Tender and Water Safety Unit)
- 18 Weston-super-Mare (Two Water Tender Ladders, Water Tender, Turntable Ladder, Major Rescue Tender, All Terrain Rescue Unit & Hovercraft, Incident Response Unit and Decomtamination Unit)
Retained
- 02 Thornbury (Water Tender Ladder and Water Tender)
- 07 Portishead (Water Tender Ladder and Water Tender)
- 08 Pill (Water Tender)
- 13 Keynsham (Water Tender Ladder)
- 16 Nailsea (Water Tender Ladder, Water Tender, Urban Search & Rescue and High Volume Pumping Unit)
- 17 Clevedon (Water Tender Ladder and Rapid Response Unit)
- 19 Yatton (Water Tender Ladder and Hose Layer)
- 20 Chew Magna (Water Tender and Rapid Response Unit)
- 21 Radstock (Water Tender Ladder)
- 22 Paulton (Water Tender)
- 23 Blagdon (Water Tender Ladder and Fogging Unit)
- 24 Winscombe (Water Tender and Welfare Trailer)
Training school
- 30 Driving School, Avonmouth (Two Water Tenders, Prime Mover and Hose Layer Unit)
Headquarters
Filton Airfield
Avon Fire and Rescue Serivce also supply two Water Tender Ladders for use by Filton Fire and Rescue Service which operates at Filton Airfield.
Operations
- In 2009, Avon took delivery of the first Polybilt bodied Combined Aerial Rescue Platform (CARP). It was allocated to Patchway fire station.[4]
- A second Combined Aerial Rescue Pump has been ordered with delivery due February 2010.
- Four B-Type appliances were delivered in early January 2009.[5][6] Allocations are 2x Bath and 2x Avonmouth.[7]
- In 2010, Avon will take 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. Allocations are currently unknown.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/Avon/About+us/History.htm
- ^ http://www.swfirecontrol.co.uk/whatisfirecontrol.asp
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/avon/your+safety
- ^ http://www.polybilteurope.com/news/view/102
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/EAD7BEF9-85BD-4D31-BBE0-CCC7EB358E5E/0/AFAAgendaandReports260908.pdf
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1583A9BE-6533-45E6-B795-F68D7E22D20D/0/AvonFireAuthorityAgendaandReports191208.pdf
- ^ http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/Avon/About+us/Vehicle+list.htm
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Avon Fire & Rescue Service |
- Website for Avon Fire & Rescue Service
- Flickr Website for Avon Fire & Rescue Service
- Yahoo group about Avon Fire & Rescue Service
- FireTV - AF&RS's online TV station
- Avon Fire & Rescue Service's 'Twitter' site
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