Fire services unite to provide back up (From Gazette & Herald)

Fire services unite to provide back up

10:05am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News

FIREFIGHTERS in Ryedale and North Yorkshire are to form a special link with a fire and rescue service hundreds of miles away.

The North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority has agreed to look at a collaborative arrangement with Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

A statement said the proposal does not look at outsourcing either service’s local control rooms but is about increasing resilience at busy times, such as when there is localised flooding that affects an entire region as was experienced last year.

The geographic distance between the two services means they are unlikely to both be experiencing severe weather at the same time.

It would mean Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service’s control room having the ability to take calls, if necessary, on behalf of North Yorkshire during busy times to reduce delay, and vice-versa.

As both Cornwall and North Yorkshire are installing the same control mobilising system, they will be able to “mobilise” each others resources to incidents.