"Emergencies at four-decade low" say firefighters

Friday 14 February 2014

Emergencies attended by firefighters are at their lowest level for more than 40 years but there is no room for complacency on public safety, according to Jersey’s chief firefighter.

A new report says that the rate of fires in homes has dropped by around 30% in the last ten years, and that there have been around 150 fires in public, commercial or industrial premises in the last five years causing more than £3 million in damages.

Jersey Fire and Rescue Service chief fire officer Mark James says that although the general downward trend was welcome, his department would not let up in their work to reduce the risk of fires and other emergencies.

He said: “Emergency incidents attended by the service are, in general terms, at their lowest in over four decades. Crucially however, the downward trends are slowing and, in some cases, showing a short-term reverse.

“There is a risk that we are entering an era of increasing emergency activity with resultant harm and loss. Unless we take decisive and innovative action the increased demand and activity will occupy more and more of our time and make it harder for us to adapt and meet this new challenge.”

His comments come in the Fire and Rescue Service’s Integrated Risk Management Plan 2014. The plan continues to promote sprinkler systems, which has been a big theme for the fire service in the last 12 months.

Despite the reduction in the number of calls, the Jersey Fire and Rescue Service is still very busy. The plan says that they attend over a thousand emergency incidents every year but that most of their call-outs are not for fires. They handle five fires a week, and a non-fire emergency every day – they also say that they rescue someone from a precarious or life-threatening situation every two to three weeks.