‘Unprecedented demand on crews’ – fire chief

LEADERS across the borough have come together to praise the work of emergency services who fought bravely to protect residents – but calls for crews to be better equipped to cope have been made by the county’s fire boss to help avoid a repeat of this week’s events.

On Tuesday, emergency services were forced to declare a ‘major incident’, meaning that residents were asked to only call 999 if a life was at risk due to stretched services.

It was the hottest day on record in the UK, with temperatures reaching 40C – leading a number of fires to start due to the dry conditions.

Chief Fire Officer Chris Kirby praised staff for their efforts this week.

He said: “I want to pay tribute to and pass on huge thanks to firefighters, officers and control room staff who dealt with an unprecedented surge in demand for our services on Tuesday afternoon.

“Also to the support teams from across the service who helped with vehicle issues and logistics, delivering of supplies to incidents and provided general support.

“Their professionalism, dedication and commitment to serving our communities was exemplary and I am so proud of their efforts.

“I have worked within the fire and rescue service for almost 24 years and I cannot recall such an unprecedented level of demand, in such difficult conditions.

“As the surge in calls ramped up, our control staff and officers had to prioritise incidents based on risk to life and property.

“On occasion, we had to leave fires burning that were not affecting life or property to attend other, more serious incidents.

“Normally, if we experienced a high demand such as this, we could request support either regionally or nationally – but the difference was that almost every single fire and rescue service was experiencing the same thing.

“If the record-breaking temperatures we saw are a sign of things to come and we experience days like it more and more, then the whole sector needs to be better equipped to deal with such extreme levels of demand.” ■ The day that changed lives forever – more reports on page five.