The final full council meeting of the term was held on Wednesday. It was dominated by a presentation from South Wales Fire Service. You can watch the first part of the meeting here.
It’s worth pointing out that the fire service is devolved to Wales.
Emergency calls halve since 2003
Bridgend contributes £7.54million each year towards the fire service – just under 10% of its total budget.
Councillors were told that the fire service’s job involves far more than “kicking in doors and squirting water”, with the fire service investing heavily over the last 15 years in education and fire prevention.
The fire service carries out around 20,000 home safety checks a year. This doesn’t just focus on fire safety with officers trained to spot signs of human trafficking, domestic abuse and trip/fall hazards for vulnerable residents.
Since 2003, the number of emergency calls to the fire service has fallen by 56%, with the number of accidental house fires falling by 35%. The only areas to have seen an increase are “special service calls” (i.e. animal rescues, bariatric/morbidly obese rescues) – which the fire service can (as far as I know) charge for.
Fire service “not afraid of prosecuting arsonists”
Ross Penhale-Thomas (Ind, Maesteg West) noted that we were entering “arson season” due to drying grasslands, with an incident in the Maesteg area taking place this weekend. It seems like the battle was being lost, with communities, wildlife and biodiversity all at risk. Was it time for a different approach?
The fire service was trying different initiatives to change behaviour – particularly preventative measures amongst younger firesetters. At the most basic level, people should be asked to respect their local environment, but the fire service wasn’t afraid to seek prosecutions where they need to do so.
Cllr. Tim Thomas (Ind, Ynysawdre) was impressed by some of the prevention work in the Mid & West Wales fire service area to protect vulnerable people. What measures were being undertaken in the South Wales area?
Additionally, constituents living in social housing have raised concerns about fire door defects which were taking a long time to be fixed.
Councillors were told the fire service – as the enforcing authority – works closely with social landlords and others with a “high-to-medium” inspection regime. Ultimately, it’s on the responsible person (i.e. landlord) to ensure their buildings are compliant with the law.
On vulnerable residents, the measures depend on the needs of the person. Different examples were given such as fire-safe ashtrays, fire-safe bedding, vibration pillows instead of smoke alarms for the hearing impaired and even full sprinkler systems for the bed-bound.
The fire safety check is free. More information on the free safety check service is available here.
Finally, Cllr. Malcolm James (Plaid, Llangynwyd) asked whether the fire service had any concerns about the financial and other pressures being placed on them by regular accidents along the M4 and climate change-related issues such as flooding?
The fire service did have concerns. The key was to ensure staff have the right equipment – such as boats – and training to deal with these incidents. There are fewer house fires and more road accidents, meaning the type of equipment deployed to stations is always kept under review.
