Cambridgeshire Fire Service told to improve understanding of blazes in tall buildings

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service have been told to improve their understanding of fires in tall buildings by official inspectors.

HMICFRS have published their latest report into the service – and while the service was rated as ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’ in seven of the 11 areas inspected, it was rated as ‘adequate’ in the response to fires and emergencies, and in the response to major incidents.

In the report, inspectors said: “The service should make sure on-call staff are familiar with the risks in their local areas and have an understanding of fires in tall buildings, so they are better prepared to fight fires and carry out rescues safely.”

The report said that the Cambridgeshire service met it’s own targets to arrive at major incidents in urban areas within nine minutes – but ‘in rural areas, the first fire engine should attend within an average of minutes The service doesn’t always meet this standard.’

However, when it came to managing resources, the service was given the top mark of outstanding.

Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland said: “I’m really pleased with our inspection outcome as it reflects the hard work and dedication that everyone who works for our fire service puts in day in, day out to help us deliver the best service we can with the resources we have. I was particularly delighted with the Outstanding we received for how we manage our resources. We are a very lean fire service and over the years have had to invest much time and effort into coming up with innovative ways to save money to either meet budget cuts or to reinvest to continually improve, so it is great to see this recognised.

“I am also particularly proud of the Good we were awarded for our values and culture. It has been our focus for a number of years now, promoting expected behaviours at work and supporting employee wellbeing. This particular success is testament to everyone who works here, who ensures we are a welcoming fire and rescue service that values diversity and encourages inclusion.”

The service will now focus on making improvements.

Mr Strickland said: “As expected with any inspection process, there were areas highlighted where the Inspectorate believes we can make further improvement. We take this feedback into account when we undertake our planning and some of these were already in motion but not completed when the inspectorate visited.”

Chair of the Fire Authority, Councillor Edna Murphy, commented: “To receive an Outstanding in one of the categories is not easy to achieve so credit must be given for this as well as for the reams of other good work identified in the report.

“As a smaller rural fire service with a tight budget it is always a juggling act to prioritise areas for improvement as usually something else has to then take a back seat, but as a Service awarded Outstanding for how it uses its resources I am confident the right balance is found and we can look forward to demonstrating further improvement next time the inspection team visits, as we have done this time round.”