Essex Fire Service take a look back at 2020
Essex Fire Service attended over 14,000 incidents this year.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service were thrown into 2020 with a bang with the first major incident happening just a few days into the New Year.
Firefighters were called to a chemical leak at an industrial site in West Thurrock.
Crews from 28 fire stations along with 24 fire officers spent almost 24 hours dealing with the incident.
In July, firefighters spent 20 days at an incident at a grain depot in Tilbury after a fire started in a silo.
August saw a large industrial warehouse destroyed by fire in Basildon, with around 100 firefighters on the scene to stop it spreading.
As well as large incidents, crews have put out countless fires, rescued people and animals from a huge variety of situations and supported partner organisations and emergency services across the county.
The service has also been recruiting with 55 new wholetime firefighters, 59 on-call firefighters, 2 control officers, and 46 support staff, joining this year.
How did the global pandemic affect things?
Essex firefighers and staff stepped up and went above and beyond to support the community during the pandemic.
It says it was one of the first services to provide firefighters as ambulance drivers - with 19 on-call firefighters providing thousands of hours of support.
Staff from across the service also delivered essential items to vulnerable people, helped move PPE to where it was needed and set up community hospitals.
Essex Fire says its teams also worked quickly to find alternative ways to provide vital services focussed on prevention and protection.
It says despite county-wide lockdowns and Covid restrictions, almost 5,000 people have received home safety visits involving alarms being dropped off and doorstep advice.
The service's education hub quickly moved online so it could continue to work with and educate children, engaging in total with 489 schools, resulting in 39,582 pupils still getting education advice.
Bespoke covid-safety campaigns were also put together to respond to the increased risk of house and garden fires with people spending so much more time at home.
Jo Turton, who's the services Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Throughout a global pandemic, our service maintained a reliable and sustainable fire and rescue service that Essex can be proud of.
“Among some of the darkest days we've seen so many positive stories too, including our staff volunteering to help other emergency services and support the most vulnerable people in our county.
“We've also continued delivering our protection and prevention services in alternative ways and we thank everyone we've worked with for being so flexible and open to change.
“The wellbeing of our staff was at the heart of everything we did, and to be able to move so quickly to make Covid safe workplaces and equip staff with new ways to do their work has been invaluable to our colleagues and the communities we serve.
“I want to thank our communities for the continued support they give to all of us at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. 2021 is already looking like a busy year to us, as we continue to adjust to the new normal and as always, work to make Essex a safe place to live, work and travel.”