The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Training in focus to aid fire staffing
Achange to training requirements by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has been suggested as a way to ease the problem of low staffing levels at stations on some of Orkney’s islands.
The issue has been raised by councillor Melissa Thomson.
She posed the question of altering training during a meeting of the local authority’s police and fire sub–committee.
Some fire stations in Orkney are meeting their full staffing complement, or are very close, such as the stations in Stromness, Kirkwall and Westray.
However, the stations in Hoy, Eday, and North Ronaldsay are each seven staff members short of fulfilling their full complement of 12.
Papa Westray is five staff members behind, while Rousay has six spaces to fill. Sanday and Shapinsay are missing three and four members of staff, respectively.
This is according to the SFRS’s figures for December.
Councillor Thomson lives on Eday and asked, with the smaller islands communities “clearly struggling for numbers”, if a new approach could be considered.
She said the Eday station is now down to four members of staff – one fewer than was in the SRFS’s report.
Councillor Thomson’s suggestion is for stations to have breathing apparatus (BA)– qualified staff supported by a back-up team who can drive or work a pump. This would be instead of having every team member being BA-qualified.
“In the past, we’ve always been told we definitely can’t do it and they all need to be fully BA trained.
“It’s really difficult when you’ve got such a small population.”
Scott Gibson, the local senior officer for the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, said that while a certain standard of training had to be maintained, nothing was off the table.
He said: “With the new strategic plan that the SRFS has delivered, I have more autonomy to look at various options on the islands.
“We have a certain standard we have to achieve with our crews, with regard to wearing breathing apparatus and driving.
“But we wouldn’t put anything off the table, with regard to achieving a fully qualified crew.”
“If that includes some kind of tiered process, we would look at that.”