Fire chief gives assurance on service after concerns about cover in the north
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FIRE cover in the north will always be maintained and crews will "continue to attend at every emergency."
That was the assurance given by Michael Humphrey, the Highland area commander for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service following concerns that cover in parts of Caithness and north Sutherland has been "seriously compromised."
Thurso and northwest Caithness Highland councillor, Matthew Reiss, made the claim and criticised "the complacent and defensive attitude" of management while a former experienced firefighter described the situation in Thurso as "dire" and said morale at the station is "terrible".
Mr Reiss, a retired senior police officer, said figures obtained through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request show there was only about 50 per cent cover during a three-month period between May and July this year in Thurso. The FoI also revealed that availability at Tongue was nil over that time while it was between 4.78 to 27 per cent at Bettyhill and 79 to 87 per cent at Durness. The figures for Wick were between 82 and 84 per cent over the same period.
"The fire cover in parts of Caithness and north Sutherland has been seriously compromised and that is a major concern," he said.
As reported last week, Mr Reiss claimed the main problem is the centralisation of the fire service and the inability to give rural areas more flexibility.
The ex-firefighter, who did not wish to be named, said in the past 12 months seven people resigned with the loss of 150 years of experience. He blamed management and centralisation of the service for the difficulties and said on one occasion earlier this year there was no cover in an area stretching from Ullapool to Durness and from Caithness to Helmsdale.
However, Mr Humphrey said: "We will always maintain fire cover and ensure we continue to attend at every emergency. This can involve the strategic movement of appliances and individual personnel from other stations within the area if required.
"Our Highland Performance Report for the period between 1 April and 30 September, 2022 highlighted that Wick and Thurso's first appliances had 98 per cent and 92 per cent availability respectively. Dornoch and Lairg had 97 per cent and 93 per cent availability respectively. In addition, Ullapool’s first and second appliances had 100 per cent and 90 per cent availability along with Durness at 81per cent and Helmsdale at 74 per cent.
"There are 11 full-time on-call support officers who review crewing daily and give on call cover during evenings and weekends."
He said there must be a minimum of four crew members in any appliance but added: "We have a joint mobilising process whereby two appliances with fewer than four crew can meet at an agreed rendezvous point to give them enough crew to respond to an incident. In addition, we have a formalised process to allow on call staff to undertake paid duties at other stations to increase their staffing levels to increase appliance availability."
Mr Humphrey said: "We continue to work to boost recruitment of on-call firefighters. We currently have 78 personnel across the Highland area going through that process, which involves a pre-employment engagement programme to introduce candidates to the station environment.
"A National On Call Leadership Forum has been established by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to identify and drive improvements in recruitment," he added.
