Prevention, Protection, Response
Our aim is to reduce fires through our prevention and protection activities, and we target our work to make sure we reach those most in need and the most vulnerable.
When there is an emergency, we are there when you need us, and our response will always be timely, professional and appropriate.
Our Prevention Work
By preventing fires and other emergencies from happening we can make Essex a safer place for everyone to live work and travel.
Our prevention work covers:
- Live Safe – reducing accidental dwelling fires and deliberate fires
- Road Safe
- Water Safe
- Safeguarding
Our operational and community risk teams look at risks in their areas and work closely with local community safety partnerships.
We split Essex into two groups to target activities – North and South. In each group, our operational and community risk teams work with our operational crews to deliver prevention advice and raise awareness to tackle key issues and help the most vulnerable.
We're focused on reducing the number of fires in homes across Essex.
The figures below show the number of accidental dwelling fires in Essex over the past few years.
We're committed to reducing the number people killed or injured in primary fires.
The figures below show the number of accidental dwelling fires in Essex over the past few years.
Protection
Our priority is to protect businesses, people, the local economy and the environment from fire and wider community-related risks.
Our protection work is guided by the duties placed on us by the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Our protection teams work towards reducing the impact of fire in commercial premises. The teams work closely with local businesses, supporting them to meet their fire safety responsibilities, guiding them on how to keep to regulations, and making sure protecting people from fire is their priority. We are committed to making our communities safer through appropriate regulation, while also using our enforcement and regulatory powers where necessary.
Read our protection strategy here.
As with all fire and rescue services, we have reviewed our policies and Protection procedures in line with the outcomes of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry reports.
We have carried out a Building Risk Review which has provided a much more detailed picture of the buildings in Essex and their level of risk.
Our teams are involved in a number of activities to make sure our communities are safe:
- Inspection and audit
- Statutory consultations
Focusing on those at the highest risk, this year our Protection team has completed:
Response
When you dial 999, our Control Room Officers will work to reassure you while sending the relevant crew to you. Usually this is the closest crew but it could be a crew that has specialist equipment like our Animal Rescue Unit which is based in Chelmsford or our Swift Water Rescue trained firefighters who are based around the county.
Not only does the Control Room answers emergency calls, but the team also works to move resources to different areas in the county based on risk. We carefully monitor and analyse the risk factors in each area in Essex and the Control Room moves crews around the county as needed to cover Essex effectively and safely.
On a typical day in Essex, we attend around 70 incidents – seven fires, 24 false alarms and 39 special services - non fire incidents that require our help.