Local manufacturer awarded for commitment to fire service and community

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service awarded its first ever Commercial Long Standing Service Award to Tiptree manufacturer Mumford & Wood today.

Essex-based timber window and door manufacturer Mumford & Wood, received a first of its kind ‘Commercial Long Standing Service Award’ to celebrate supporting Essex County Fire and Rescue Service for 20 years.

Over the last two decades, Mumford & Wood has encouraged several members of staff to join Tiptree Fire Station as on-call firefighters - firefighters who live or work within 5 minutes of an on-call fire station - by releasing them from work if there is an incident they get called to.

A special presentation was held on Thursday, 19 January at Mumford & Wood’s factory in Tiptree where firefighters and the Service’s Director of Corporate Services Karl Edwards met with staff.

Mumford & Wood currently have two on-call firefighters, Dave Ford and Rob Empson, that are available 24/7 to attend emergencies in Tiptree and further afield. The firefighters could be called to a range of incidents from fires, road traffic collisions, specialist rescues, maritime incidents, flooding and incidents relating to hazardous materials. Mumford & Wood permits their employees to respond to calls during work hours, and this award is a great recognition of that.

Dion Panting, Managing Director, Mumford & Wood said:

“The fire service offers their on-call firefighters in depth training in a wide variety of tasks from which we absolutely benefit. As a Made in Britain and Essex-based manufacturer we also understand the importance of supporting our local community in any way we can, and for the past 20 years members of our team have responded to 2,000 calls - an achievement we are incredibly proud of.”

Karl Edwards, Director of Corporate Services at Essex County Fire & Rescue Service said:

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mumford & Wood for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and support in enabling their employees to provide their time and professionalism as on-call firefighters in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. ECFRS on-call firefighters make sure their local communities are kept safe and the support that local employers provide in releasing their staff to respond to emergency calls or for periods of training and education is essential to ensuring that we can maintain effective engagement and response to the public of Essex."

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service employs more than 400 on-call firefighters across the county. They all live or work within 5 minutes of an on-call fire station and respond to incidents when they are paged.

Many of the on-call firefighters have full-time jobs outside of the fire service and are supported by their employers to respond to incidents during working hours. 

Firefighter Dave Ford works in the Production Management Team at Mumford & Wood and has been an on-call firefighter in Tiptree for 13 years. He joined ECFRS when he found out a colleague at Mumford & Wood was an on-call firefighter.

He said: “I really appreciate being able to attend fire calls during my working hours at Mumford & Wood. It’s quite rare for employers to let their employees out to attend emergency calls. This shows that Mumford & Wood have a great attitude and understanding towards keeping our community safe.

“Without their help, Tiptree Fire station would struggle to be available for emergency calls during the daytime. It’s a great achievement to show this level of support to the community for the past 20+ years and the commercial long-standing service award is well deserved, and should be celebrated.”

Could you enable your staff to become an on-call firefighter? Get in touch with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service to see how you can support your community: mailbox.oclo@essex-fire.gov.uk