Cornwall’s Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is asking for people’s views on whether it should change ‘unrealistic’ target times for getting to emergencies.
Fire crews in Cornwall are currently measured on how often they hit targets for attending call outs within 10 minutes of a 999 call coming in.
But in 2018, in an inspection carried out under a new national regime, CFRS was given an ‘inadequate’ rating for its response times.
Now, Cornwall Fire and Rescue has said that the target sets unrealistic expectations in rural areas.
Journey times can be affected by various factors in Cornwall such as the accessibility to remote locations, says CFRS.
The service is proposing changes to the way performance is measured which could give a longer, ‘more realistic’ target response time, and which would differentiate between whole-time officers, who are based at firestations, and on-call fire crew, who do other jobs and are paged to attend emergencies.
Under the proposals there would be no change to how firefighters actually operate on the ground, says Cornwall’s fire chief Mark Hewitt.
A drop-in event will be held at Bodmin Fire Station tomorrow from 5.45 - 6.15 pm for members of the public to find out about the changes being put forward and to have their say.
Further consultation events are set to be held all over the county in the coming weeks.
An article in more detail about the fire call-out standards, and with the timetable for the drop-in events in South East Cornwall, is set to be published in this week’s Cornish Times, out on Friday.
To find out more about the current call-out standards, the proposed changes and how you can have your say online, visit www.cornwall.gov.uk/IRPM