Fire services in Dumfries and Galloway are feeling strained
Youths are being educated on the risk of setting wildfires.
Fire services in Dumfries and Galloway are feeling strained by a lack of on-call cover and deliberate fires.
Gatehouse station commander Chris Ross says incidents like Saturday’s blaze at a disused farm building near Dumfries are piling more pressure on services already struggling to recruit on-call officers.
He points out that this can take up resources from across the region:
“Due to the nature of Dumfries and Galloway, if we have a fire like say in Dumfries, then we are pulling crews in from our small towns to support them when we need a number of appliances, so we are stripping areas shorter.”
His unit has the lowest on-call retained duty system out of the region’s 19 stations which sits at 22% availability so if an emergency were to occur, his seven firefighters might need backup from another station to assist.
Dumfries and Galloway’s average is 75% and the Scottish average of 58%.
New Galloway station’s availability rate is at 50%.
These statistics were included in an annual fire service performance report for April 2023-March 2024 at the Stewartary Area Committee meeting.
Ross tells Greatest Hits Radio: “There are very few people who are employed locally so that means they are no longer available to respond to incidents throughout the day.
“This is unfortunately becoming a trend where smaller towns and regions where the daytime availability is becoming more and more of a challenge.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is hosting recruitment events across the region to help tackle this issue.
Ross adds that they are trying to educate young people about the consequences and risks:
“Our community action team does a lot of work to combat this, whether it’s visiting local schools and youth areas to discuss the dangers of deliberate fire setting amongst other topics they can deliver.”