Our performance

We understand how important it is that we provide an efficient and effective response to incidents, and we aim to arrive on scene as quickly and safely as possible.

Our Emergency Response Standards (ERS) allow us to monitor how often we arrive within our target attendance time to dwelling fires and Road Traffic Collisions (RTC).

Our aim is for an appliance to attend dwelling fire incidents within 10 minutes of the emergency call being answered, and RTCs within 15 minutes.

The rural nature of our service area means this isn’t always going to be possible, so our target is to achieve the ERS for at least 75% of eligible incidents.

Incident data in this measure is sourced from the Vision mobilising system, and the incident type is based on our understanding at the time that the call was received and resources assigned.

Quarterly performance can be seen below (higher numbers are better).

We have 13 wholetime fire engines that are crewed 24/7 and 99 on-call (including volunteer) fire engines that are crewed by people that live or work in the local community and respond to a fire station when alerted by their pager. Despite our on-call and voluntary personnel's commitment, maintaining these fire engines' availability can be challenging.

To ensure that we are effectively mitigating incident risk, we aim to keep 98% of 56 risk-critical fire engines available and 85% of the remaining 66 fire engines available at all times.

Availability data is sourced from the Gartan availability system.

Current performance can be seen below (higher numbers are better).

A "call handling time" is the duration from when we answer an emergency call to when we establish where the incident is and assign the right resources.

Our emergency calls are given a call handling time target based on the type of incident and how difficult it is likely to be to identify the correct location and mobilise the right resources.

For example, a dwelling fire has a target call handling time of 90 seconds as it is likely that the caller will be able to provide an address, whereas an RTC has a target call handling time of 120 seconds as it is likely that it will take longer to establish an accurate location for the incident.

Our aim is to answer 90% of calls within the target time."

This is the duration from when our Fire Control operatives alert resources to attend an incident, to when those resources notify Fire Control that they are mobile to the incident.

We measure wholetime and on-call turnout times separately as our wholetime crews are generally at the station or close to their appliance when they are alerted, while on-call personnel usually need to respond to the station first.

Data for this measure is sourced from the Vision mobilisation system.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Our incident-based measures are calculated using a rate per 100,000 population. This allows us to compare our performance against other fire and rescue services. An example of how we calculate this can be seen below.

“Dwelling fires are fires in properties that are a place of residence, for example, places occupied by households such as houses and flats, excluding hotels or hostels and residential institutions. Dwellings also include non-permanent structures used solely as a dwelling, such as houseboats and caravans.” – gov.uk: fire-statistics-definitions.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Dwelling fire fatalities

This measure includes people that died as a direct result of a dwelling fire.

If there is a death within the reporting month, the KPI will immediately be given a status of "needs improvement".  If there is not a death within the reporting month, an assessment will be made based on the rolling 12 month-period against the five-year average.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better):

Dwelling fire hospitalisations

This measure includes people that were injured because of a dwelling fire and required treatment at a hospital, whether as an outpatient or inpatient.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Non-domestic fires are “fires in other residential or non-residential buildings. Other (institutional) residential buildings include properties such as hostels, hotels or bed and breakfasts, nursing or care homes, student halls of residence and so on. Non-residential buildings include properties such as offices, shops, factories, warehouses, restaurants, public buildings and religious buildings.” – gov.uk: fire-statistics-definitions.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Non-domestic fire fatalities

This measure includes people that died as a direct result of a non-domestic premises fire.

If there is a death within the reporting month, the KPI will immediately be given a status of "needs improvement".  If there is not a death within the reporting month, an assessment will be made based on the rolling 12 month-period against the five-year average.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better):
 

Non-domestic fire hospitalisations

This measure includes people that were injured because of a non-domestic fire and required treatment at hospital, whether as an outpatient or inpatient.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Other fires are fires in either primary** road vehicles, primary outdoor locations, or fires in non-primary outdoor locations that have casualties or five or more pumping appliances attending.

Outdoor primary locations include aircraft, boats, trains and outdoor structures such as post or telephone boxes, bridges, tunnels etc.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Other fire fatalities

This measure includes people that died as a direct result of a fire that wasn't in a dwelling or non-domestic premises.

If there is a death within the reporting month, the KPI will immediately be given a status of "needs improvement". If there is not a death within the reporting month, an assessment will be made based on the rolling 12 month-period against the five-year average.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better):

Other fire hospitalisations

This measure includes people that were injured because of an “other fire” and required treatment at hospital, whether as an outpatient or inpatient.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

** “Primary fires are generally more serious fires that harm people or cause damage to property. Primary fires are defined as fires that cause damage by fire, heat or smoke and meet at least one of the following conditions: any fire that occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or (some) outdoor structures, any fire involving fatalities, casualties or rescues, any fire attended by five or more pumping appliances.” – gov.uk: fire-statistics-definitions.

“Secondary fires are generally small outdoor fires, not involving people or property. These include refuse fires, grassland fires and fires in derelict buildings or vehicles unless these fires involved casualties or rescues, or five or more pumping appliances attended, in which case they become primary other outdoor fires.” - gov.uk: fire-statistics-definitions.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

“Deliberate fires include those where the motive for the fire was ‘thought to be’ or ‘suspected to be’ deliberate. This includes fires to an individual’s own property, others’ property or property of an unknown owner. Despite deliberate fire records including arson, deliberate fires are not the same as arson. Arson is defined under the Criminal Damage Act of 1971 as ‘an act of attempting to destroy or damage property, and/or in doing so, to endanger life’.” - gov.uk: fire-statistics-definitions

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

RTCs attended including those that resulted in a fire.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Unwanted fire alarm signals are incidents that we attend where an automatic alarm has been activated due to a cause other than fire. For example, poor maintenance, system fault and more.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Unwanted fire alarm signals are incidents that we attend where an automatic alarm has activated due to a cause other than fire. For example, poor maintenance, system fault and so on.

Current performance can be seen below (lower numbers are better).

Succeeding – on or better than target.
Near target – less than ten percent away from meeting the target.