Rural and Farm Fire Safety
Around 72% of Essex is rural with 350, 000 residents, 22,500 businesses and 250,000 hectares of farmed land.
Farm fires can be devastating, resulting in the loss of machinery, livestock, stores of hay and straw, and the destruction of buildings. A serious fire on a farm can affect the financial stability of even the most well run business.
Farms are at a high risk of fire because there are often lots of combustible materials stored in or around agricultural buildings. Farms are also often in isolated locations which may have poor water supply. This makes farms much more vulnerable to fire getting ot of control, especially in summer when hot and dry weather increases the risk of wildfires spreading.
Farms are particularly vulnerable to deliberate fires and arson due to their isolated location, open boundaries, readily ignitable hay and straw stacks often making them easy targets.
Meet our Rural Engagement Officer
Oliver Everott is our Rural Engagement Officer.
Ollie comes from a farming background so has lots of knowledge of the farming industry. Ollie grew up on a dairy farm and has worked as a gamekeeper, deer keeper and a farm manager in charge of livestock and arable farms.
Before this role, Ollie worked in our Protection team, visiting commercial businesses giving fire safety advice.
- To contact Ollie, call 07500105715 or email oliver.everott@essex-fire.gov.uk
Tractor-ific!
We're very excited about our brand new tractor (well, it's only sort of ours - it's actually on loan from Crawfords Group) which we will be taking along to agricultural shows and rural events during the year to raise awareness of fire safety for farms and rural communities.
Ultimately, the more people we can attract to talk to us, the more people we can help keep safe from fire.
