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HX55 KEJ Waterlooville Volvo
Waterlooville Fire Station Open day Sept 2017. waterlooville is a growing town in Hampshire, north of Portsmouth. For many yaers it was a retained station then gained a wholetime day manned crew. It has now returned to retained only.
Waterlooville Fire Station Open day Sept 2017. waterlooville is a growing town in Hampshire, north of Portsmouth. For many yaers it was a retained station then gained a wholetime day manned crew. It has now returned to retained only.
Comment removed at request of Commentor
Andy: Depressing news!
According to Wikepedia, Waterlooville has a population of 64, 000 people.
The Hampshire Fire Service website identifies this station as having two pumpers and twenty four retained firefighters.
Hanau, a German town with almost exactly the same size population, is also protected by on call firefighters, who are actually all unpaid volunteers.
So what's the difference?
Waterlooville has one fire station with two pumpers and 24 firefighters. Hanau has eight fire stations, six pumps, four rescue pumps, three water tenders, two aerials, six rescue and/or equipment trucks, two pod carriers, seven pods and several command and personnel vans, staffed by 212 active operational on-call volunteers.
Interesting comparison, it would seem....
Added by Rob Johnson on 17 October 2017.
According to Wikepedia, Waterlooville has a population of 64, 000 people.
The Hampshire Fire Service website identifies this station as having two pumpers and twenty four retained firefighters.
Hanau, a German town with almost exactly the same size population, is also protected by on call firefighters, who are actually all unpaid volunteers.
So what's the difference?
Waterlooville has one fire station with two pumpers and 24 firefighters. Hanau has eight fire stations, six pumps, four rescue pumps, three water tenders, two aerials, six rescue and/or equipment trucks, two pod carriers, seven pods and several command and personnel vans, staffed by 212 active operational on-call volunteers.
Interesting comparison, it would seem....
Added by Rob Johnson on 17 October 2017.
Waterlooville has, for the most part, always been a retained station. It was upgraded to day crewing in around 2000 and reverted back to retained in 2008. Hampshire Fire and Rescue claimed the removal of its wholetime crews due in part to a successful reduction in incidents in the town, but we all know what that truly means.
Waterlooville's upgrade was in part 'allowed' by the downgrading of two, albeit much smaller day crewed stations in the New Forest (Lyndhurt and Hardley). Retained stations at Titchfield and Twyford were also closed during this time and Eastleigh gained a second wholetime pump.
Another risk review around 2007/08 removed Waterlooville's wholetime crews. Adjacent Havant was upgraded to wholetime from day crewed along with Winchester and Andover. Other changes included the closure of Copnor in Portsmouth and its resources redeployed to the other city stations and the removal of a wholetime pump at Redbridge in Southampton. The second wholetime pump at Eastleigh was also downgraded allowing the redistribution of crews to facilitate these day crewing upgrades.
Waterlooville's station ground actually only covers around 40, 000 people of the towns population. Cosham covers a large part of the southern portion of the town and Horndean the north.
Some may disagree as to whats better, day crewed appliances at more stations around the county or full time pumps at less stations.
Added by David Jones on 22 July 2018.
Waterlooville's upgrade was in part 'allowed' by the downgrading of two, albeit much smaller day crewed stations in the New Forest (Lyndhurt and Hardley). Retained stations at Titchfield and Twyford were also closed during this time and Eastleigh gained a second wholetime pump.
Another risk review around 2007/08 removed Waterlooville's wholetime crews. Adjacent Havant was upgraded to wholetime from day crewed along with Winchester and Andover. Other changes included the closure of Copnor in Portsmouth and its resources redeployed to the other city stations and the removal of a wholetime pump at Redbridge in Southampton. The second wholetime pump at Eastleigh was also downgraded allowing the redistribution of crews to facilitate these day crewing upgrades.
Waterlooville's station ground actually only covers around 40, 000 people of the towns population. Cosham covers a large part of the southern portion of the town and Horndean the north.
Some may disagree as to whats better, day crewed appliances at more stations around the county or full time pumps at less stations.
Added by David Jones on 22 July 2018.
David:
Very interesting comments.
It is always good to know from an informed point of view what is actually going on with fire protection in the UK. Brigades continually seem to be trying to cope with the enormous pressures to cut costs while still providing a reasonable level of coverage.
I think the examples of many countries overseas provide an answer - which the UK authorities have not even considered. Payroll and benefits account for over 70% of the total cost of the British fire service, so any meaningful reduction in costs means less payroll, fewer firefighters and fewer appliances to respond to incidents.
Inn the UK almost all fire fighters are paid, either full-time or on call.
Nearly every other country has between 65% and even 100% of their firefighting personnel on the roster as unpaid volunteers. In Chile, all are volunteers, even in Santiago with 5.5 million citizens.
The only exceptions I have ever come across are city states like Singapore, Kuwait and Hong Kong.
If Britain were to start recruiting unpaid volunteers to fill in the gaps which are now emerging, the country could gradually move to a similar organizational model. This would provide much more comprehensive fire and rescue service coverage at a significantly lower cost.
Outside of the largest cities, countries including most of Europe rely exclusively on volunteers, and in medium sized towns they work alongside paid full time crews who usually man the first due appliance.
In the US, many towns and cities also have paid full time crews backed up unpaid volunteers. When I lived in Nassau County New York, the county - with a population of 1.4 million - had over 90 fire stations, all but one of them exclusively staffed by unpaid volunteers.
Added by Rob Johnson on 25 July 2018.
Very interesting comments.
It is always good to know from an informed point of view what is actually going on with fire protection in the UK. Brigades continually seem to be trying to cope with the enormous pressures to cut costs while still providing a reasonable level of coverage.
I think the examples of many countries overseas provide an answer - which the UK authorities have not even considered. Payroll and benefits account for over 70% of the total cost of the British fire service, so any meaningful reduction in costs means less payroll, fewer firefighters and fewer appliances to respond to incidents.
Inn the UK almost all fire fighters are paid, either full-time or on call.
Nearly every other country has between 65% and even 100% of their firefighting personnel on the roster as unpaid volunteers. In Chile, all are volunteers, even in Santiago with 5.5 million citizens.
The only exceptions I have ever come across are city states like Singapore, Kuwait and Hong Kong.
If Britain were to start recruiting unpaid volunteers to fill in the gaps which are now emerging, the country could gradually move to a similar organizational model. This would provide much more comprehensive fire and rescue service coverage at a significantly lower cost.
Outside of the largest cities, countries including most of Europe rely exclusively on volunteers, and in medium sized towns they work alongside paid full time crews who usually man the first due appliance.
In the US, many towns and cities also have paid full time crews backed up unpaid volunteers. When I lived in Nassau County New York, the county - with a population of 1.4 million - had over 90 fire stations, all but one of them exclusively staffed by unpaid volunteers.
Added by Rob Johnson on 25 July 2018.
Volvo
