Priority two

Fire and rescue services operate in an ever-changing world, and we must ensure that our 
resources match the risks. This means having the right personnel and equipment in the right place at the right time, so we are there when we are needed.

Incidents attended 2023/24
We attended 17,901 incidents including a total of 3,517 fires, a reduction of 18.1% from the 
previous year.

• 7,247 false alarms
• 1.994 primary fires
• 1,523 secondary fires
• 2,206 collaboration incidents (assisting other agencies)
• 1,781 other non-fire incidents (such as lift rescues and animal rescues)
• 772 road traffic collisions (RTC)
• 1,968 medical incidnts
• 410 flooding incidents.

We handled 35,574 calls in 2023/24, a reduction of 5.9% from the previous year.

Local Community Plans

The first phase of the Local Community Plans (LCPs) for every fire station has been 
developed and is accessible to all staff. The plans provide a comprehensive picture of the 
community within the station’s area, as well as availability for their appliances, activity and 
incident data. The accessibility and interactive nature of the plans mean that stations and 
departments can readily access useful information to help shape and improve their operations.

Vehicles

In 2023, work was completed to analyse the location and type of specialist vehicles that carry dedicated equipment and technology for specific incidents. The information from the review was used by our fleet department to help inform their fleet replacement programme.

Three new Aerial Ladder Platforms (ALP) have arrived in the Service and training has started. These vehicles will enhance our current capacity, providing access and rescue up to a height of 45 metres. We also have four new all-wheel drive Medium Rescue Pumps (MRPs) being 
delivered this year and four will follow next year.

MORI

A new information technology system, MORI (Management of Risk Information) has been 
developed to improve how we gather, assess, and use the information to support our 
operational staff at incidents. The system records and provides key operational risk 
information. Any operationally useful information collected during prevention and protection activities is saved directly into the MORI system making it immediately available to operational crews. The MORI system joins the domains of prevention, protection, and response. The 
system has been introduced across the Service supporting operational crews when attending incidents and training.

Assisting other agencies

We have responded to the emerging demand to assist the ambulance service in moving bariatric patients. Specialist equipment and training has been provided to six crews 
strategically located, underpinned with newly created response plans, risk assessments, and guidance.

Grenfell recommendations

In response to the Grenfell recommendations, the Service implemented the use of escape (smoke) hoods and smoke curtains to aid in the safe evacuation of residents. It has 
introduced a system called Immediate Building Evacuation (IBE) to manage the systematic evacuation of larger or more complex buildings. This system is currently being further 
developed to make use of existing digital solutions to ensure the information being provided to our operational crews is real-time and consistent.

Climate

Extreme weather events have severe impacts on society, and we are responding to this by 
investing in specialist training such as for wildfire officers and flood response. The Service also maintains specialist equipment such as the Argocat and Groundhog all-terrain fire 
fighting vehicles. Our specialist rescue teams maintain a high level of preparedness with 
assets such as the Ionic boat, specifically designed to rescue people from inland flooding. We have ordered five new modern water carriers that are due in service in May 2025.