Looking back
Our Community Risk Management Plan provides an overview of fire and rescue-related risks faced by the communities we serve, and outlines how we will address them through our prevention, protection and emergency response activities. It’s our strategy for the next five years to help keep you, your home, your community and your environment safe from fire and other emergencies.
This plan replaces our Integrated Risk Management Plan 2018-2022 (IRMP) and Fire and Rescue Plan 2018-2022.
We will continue to build upon the work already delivered under these plans. We have outlined some of the changes and achievements under these plans below.
Total incidents attended in Devon and Somerset
This chart shows the total number of incidents in Devon and Somerset that the Service attended each year (2015/16 to 2020/21). The number of fires, false alarms and special services attended is also shown.
Although the total number of incidents we attend may have decreased, the role of the fire and rescue service has evolved. The range of incidents we attend is extremely broad and has increased over recent years, as has the equipment needed to deal with different incident types. For example flooding, biomass fuel plants and electric vehicles.
How this plan has been informed
When preparing this plan, we asked residents, businesses and our staff about the dangers they face and how we could help them feel safer. We did this with an online survey and an online forum, both also available to participate in over the phone. We received nearly 1,700 responses.
We consulted on the draft plan asking to what extent respondents agreed or disagreed with three statements.
- 71% agreed that the Service identified all the major risks it is responsible for.
- 63% agreed that the activities the Service continues to and proposes to deliver are appropriate to the identified risks.
- 57% agreed that the activities the Service continues to and proposes to deliver do not affect them or anyone else more positively or negatively than other people. 23% neither agreed nor disagreed.
We received around 250 responses to an online survey and by email. We also held focus groups and a paper version of the survey was available on request.
By looking at our data and listening to what our staff, partners and those who live and work in Devon and Somerset have told us, we have sought to identify the key fire and rescue-related risks, and how we will work with our partners and communities to reduce those risks. All of the feedback has been considered and, where appropriate, changes included in this plan.
| What you told us | Our response |
|---|---|
| The plan doesn’t include a risk facing my local community or what you will do in my local area. |
This is a high-level, strategic plan and does not detail every local risk or activity such as retaining walls, narrow bridges and type of fire engine at individual stations. Specific local risks will be covered in the local risk management plans we will develop for each station area. Local risk management plans have been added to the actions we have identified to make our intent clearer. We will refer to the local information provided when creating these plans. There is now greater reference in the plan to the Strategic Risk Analysis, which provides more detailed information about risk. |
| Rural communities were less likely to agree that all the risks have been identified and that the activities planned were appropriate than those in urban or coastal areas. |
We recognise that large parts of our Service area are rural. Whilst not specifically mentioned as a risk in itself, rural communities are considered throughout the plan, and in the supporting Equality Impact Assessment and Strategic Risk Analysis. We talk frequently about tailoring our service for those most at risk. This includes geographic areas (including rural) as well as groups of people. Specific risks for rural communities will be picked up in the local risk management plans we plan to develop. |
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Young people and education were underrepresented in the draft plan. |
We will continue to engage with young people through education programmes and activities including cadets, our firesetter intervention programme and partnership work. Our prevention activities actions have been updated to reflect this. |