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CONTINGENCY ARRANGEMENT NOW LIVE

Worcestershire County Council are to close the Teme Bridge at Tenbury Wells, from Monday 9th January 2011 for a period of up to 10 weeks, in order to carry out repairs and strengthening of the structure.  The bridge will also be unavailable for emergency service use, due to the nature of the work which is to be carried out.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) has been involved in discussions as part of the local steering group and has contingency arrangements in place to provide fire cover during the closure.

Contingency Arrangement.

Tenbury Wells Fire Station is crewed solely by "On Call" firefighters, who respond to the fire station in Burford when required to attend emergency calls, when alerted by a pager  There are two fire engines based at Tenbury Wells Fire Station.

From 4pm, Sunday 8th January, one of the fire engines based at Tenbury Wells Fire Station has been relocated to a temporary fire station at Bromyard Road Industrial Estate.  Also at this base are full sets of PPE (firekit) for each firefighter that normally responds from the Tenbury side of the bridge.

On receipt of a 999 call, the operators in the fire service call centre will identify the location of the incident, and will mobilise the resources required, taking into account which side of the bridge the incident is located.  A mobilising message is being faxed to the temporary fire station.

An extra fire engine will be responding to all incidents in the area as a matter of routine during the bridge closure.

Local firefighters will be alerted by pager as normal and they will receive a text message via mobile phone, informing them which of the two fire engines are required for the incident.  This will enable them to respond accordingly.

The text messaging has been trialled over the last 2 months and has proved to be effective and reliable.

Incidents On The Tenbury Side Of The Bridge.

In order that we can make our contingency arrangements, we have identified where each individual firefighter usually responds from at different times of the day and night.

The majority of our staff are usually located in Burford, however, three of our firefighters work within 50 yards of the temporary base in Bromyard Road during the day, and at certain times of the day and night, we have additional firefighters who can respond from their homes and places of work (in Mill Meadow, Morningside & the Town Centre).  During the bridge closure period, they will crew the fire engine from it's temporary base.

In the event that there are insufficient crew members on the Tenbury Side of the bridge, the fire engine will be driven to the Teme Bridge, where additional crew members from Burford, will be waiting ready to take the fire engine to the incident.

We do not believe that this will cause a delay in mobilising, as in normal circumstances the crew members would have been responding to the Burford station in their own vehicles anyway.

For all incidents on the Tenbury side of the bridge, both Tenbury appliances will proceed, and for all incidents that would normally attract an attendance of 2 engines, an engine from the next nearest station will also proceed.

Incidents On The Burford Side Of The Bridge.

For incidents on the Burford side of the bridge, the Burford crew will mobilise the fire engine based at the fire station as normal.

For all incidents on the Burford side of the bridge, both Tenbury appliances will proceed, and for all incidents that would normally attract an attendance of 2 engines, an engine from the next nearest station will also proceed.

Incidents Within The Town Centre.

In the event of a fire or incident within the town itself, the Bromyard Road crew will mobilise as normal.  The Burford crew will proceed on foot direct to the incident while a driver brings the second fire engine around the diversion route.  This will ensure that we have as many personnel at the incident in the shortest possible amount of time.  An additional engine will also be proceeding from either Leominster or Bromyard.

Crew Availability.

Crew availability will be closely monitored by the local fire service commanders (based at Tenbury) via the electronic availability system which is also linked directly to the 999 call centre.