NEWS Fire service response to Storm Dennis discussed
THE NATIONAL Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) discussed the National Resilience (NR) response to the flooding caused by Storm Dennis in February. The storm created ‘several major incidents across the country’, with severe flood warnings in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, and assets deployed to South Wales, which experienced serious floods. The NFCC added that the ‘more than 600’ flood warnings and alerts for England alone were ‘more than any other day on record’, with many additional warnings across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It added that the NR response
was run ‘in conjunction’ with the Department for Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency. In the ‘major incident’ declared in South Wales, towns and villages north of Cardiff were ‘subjected to more than a month’s worth of rainfall in 48 hours’. Assets deployed nationally included flood boats, a high volume pump (HVP) with a double hose box module, and a pump module – modules including 3km of hoses for pumping water away.
HVPs can move up to 7,000 litres
of water per minute, with 52 nationally registered in England and Wales, while South Wales has a ‘wide range’ of assets that were used, including
rescue unit from Greater Manchester FRS, while both the ambulance service and a hazardous area response team were on scene. The NFCC noted that the
national response allowed teams and equipment to ‘be deployed quickly and effectively’, coordinated by NR arrangements, while the FRS and voluntary organisations could provide 93 powered and 35 non powered rescue boat teams ‘immediately’. Additionally, the NR assurance
flood rescue tactical advisors, flood boats, HVPs and ancillary equipment modules. Additionally, rescue boat crews from fire and rescue services (FRSs) and the voluntary sector undertook rescues and evacuations from properties areawide. The NFCC said that this national
response is ‘provided from a register of national assets’ from FRSs and voluntary agencies ‘to support’ the response, with the situation monitored and response adjusted ‘as the situation change[d]’. NR was also deployed to Macclesfield, Cheshire, for a wall collapse, while a number of homes were evacuated and resources were requested, including a search and rescue dog. A team from Merseyside FRS attended, alongside a technical
team (NRAT) is supported by lead NFCC officers and coordinates the national response alongside providing ‘vital’ support to the government and supporting FRSs with additional assets. NR meanwhile provides ‘invaluable’ support in response to such ‘nationally significant’ incidents, working to the National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF) to ‘ensure a flexible response is put in place’. The NFCC concluded by noting that ‘highly experienced’ FRS ‘strategic and tactical’ advisors supported affected areas; something that has been ‘consistently demonstrated’ since 2005’s floods in Cumbria. FRSs also coordinate a national response to ‘wide area flooding’ on behalf of DEFRA, via a ‘well-established and highly effective’ NCAF
No ‘face-to-face’ LFB high rise training post Grenfell
LONDON FIRE Brigade (LFB) commissioner Andy Roe has admitted to the London Assembly that there has been ‘no in person high rise training since Grenfell’ for most LFB firefighters. This Is Local London reported on the ‘visible shock’ at Mr Roe’s comments to the assembly’s fire committee, in which he noted that firefighters have only received ‘basic’ online training ‘not delivered until August last year’. Most have ‘received no face-to-face training on how to respond to a high-rise fire’. He stated: ‘We have given what
I would consider the most basic provision to our officers, which
covers the sort of decisions they might have to make, the basic guidance. But that needs to be supported and better embedded with changes to operational procedure.’ Senior officers ‘received more
detailed training’, while all station commanders have had ‘face-to- face briefings on how to respond to a rapidly spreading high-rise fire’. Crews received training on fire safety in high rise blocks that ‘would feed into their response’, but deputy committee chairman Susan Hall called the developments ‘really worrying’. The news outlet claimed that the comments added
14 APRIL 2020
www.frmjournal.com
to a ‘concerning picture’ after the recent report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for the Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service (HMICFRS), which found LFB had been ‘slow to implement’ changes. Mr Roe accepted the need for ‘transformational change’, but it was a ‘tragedy’ that it had taken Grenfell to be the ‘catalyst’. He has also ‘pushed ahead
with a new plan to implement the recommendations’ of both the HMICFRS report and the first phase report from the Grenfell inquiry, and ‘crucially’ stated that all officers would receive ‘face-to-face’ training on LFB’s new high rise policy
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