Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service working to improve response times

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) has told us of the challenges they're facing that are driving response times up.

It follows analysis of Home Office data by personal injury experts at Claims.co.uk, which ranked all 43 UK Fire and Rescue Service areas for the quarter ending in September 2023.

Dorset and Wiltshire came out 28th, with an average response time of 10 minutes 47 seconds - almost four minutes slower than the fastest service Tyne and Wear.

Growing communities slowing rural response times

Damien Bence, area manager at DWFRS, has told us a number of issues are holding their response times back.

"We cover a population of over 1.4million people across a huge geographical area of some 2,500 square miles," he said.

Damien added that as two rural counties, Dorset and Wiltshire are always likely to be slower for response times.

"We are classed as significantly rural by the Home Office and you'll see in those figures that a lot of those top tier services, the ones with the quickest response times, are more urban and metropolitan, so the communities are denser.

"What we have in Dorset and Wiltshire is our communities are spread throughout the geographical areas," he added.

But those communities are growing, which leads to other issues, such as more traffic on the roads and new road layouts.

37 of the 50 fire stations in Dorset and Wiltshire are staffed by 'on-call' firefighters, meaning they can sometimes be delayed in simply arriving at the station before jumping into the fire engine.

And as a result, some stations also aren't available at all times, meaning the response will come from the next nearest station.

Issues with recruitment and retention

Damien says the last decade has seen an the time taken to get a fire engine out is increasing, which is part of a wider national issue.

"It's increasingly hard to recruit and retain our on-call firefighters," he said, adding that it's an issue affecting every area relying on on-call staff. More urban and metropolitan areas mainly have a full-time response.

"I think it's a mixture of family friendly people want to spend more time with family," Damien explained.

"We used to rely on the local builders, the postmen, the painters and decorators, who would all live and work in their local communities, and they would respond when we called them in.

"But I think that work is perhaps drying up in those areas or they're seeking work further afield, so we haven't got those people immediately available to crew our fire engines."

The service is funded by the precept on Council Tax as well as Government funding, which is also being reduced.

"We don't pay massively," Damien told us, adding: "we have to try and use that most effectively to provide a response to the whole of Dorset and Wiltshire.

"It's a challenge, one that we're trying to address. We're trying to make it more flexible for our on call firefighters and we're trying to increase the pay."

999 calls will always get a response

Damien moved to reassure the public that a response will always come when we dial 999.

"When you call 999, we will respond to your call of distress. That fire engine may not come from your nearest fire station, but will come from the next nearest fire station. You'll always get a response in your hour of need."

He added that the service is always evaluating how they staff stations each and every day, in an effort to be ready at all times.

He said: "We monitor our fire stations, we monitor the crews that are in them and we maintain our fire engines in a state of readiness. So they're always available to respond."

He's urged us all to look through their Community Safety Plan, which details how they identify the risk to our communities, how they plan to prevent fires and other emergencies, how they'll handle emergencies and how they enforce the laws of fire safety.

It's open public consultation until 3rd May, and we can provide feedback through their website.