More focused community safety work, a continuing programme of home fire safety visits, reduced unnecessary call outs and more high profile campaign work to improve the safety of communities - some of the features of new London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson's vision in the Brigade's third London Safety Plan.
The draft plan sets out the key priorities for the London Fire Brigade over the next three years and was agreed by members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority on Thursday 22 November 2007. Comments on the Brigade's plans are welcome, and will be considered carefully before the final plan is agreed next March. For more information on the consultation and to take part see www.london-fire.gov.uk.
Achievements over the past year are also included in the plan, such as the reduction in accidental fire deaths in the home, fewer fires overall and the target for home fire safety visits by the Brigade being exceeded. New vehicles and equipment have improved resilience for emergencies, including possible terrorist attack, building collapse and flooding. Meanwhile, more than £8.3 million in efficiency savings were made last year with a further £16m saving planned for 2007/08.
Work outlined in the new plan aims to build on these successes to further reduce accidental fires in the home, the deaths and injuries they cause, the number of deliberate fires, the number of hoax calls attended and the number of unnecessary and wasteful calls to false alarms from automated fire detection systems and to release people shut in lifts.
Community safety will remain a top priority, and each year the Brigade will visit over 40,000 people in their home to give free advice on fire safety.
New systems and tools used by the Brigade will make this work more focused than ever before - targeted at those communities and individuals which the Brigade knows are at most risk from fire such as older people and those on low incomes. Strategies to work with young people and older people, and get across vital fire safety messages, will be delivered in the coming years. The Brigade will also play its part in challenging anti-social behaviour and promoting social inclusion.
Unnecessary and repeated call outs to people shut in lifts or repeated false alarms from automated fire detection systems at the same buildings can divert firefighter time away from the vital business of community safety work, responding to fires or training for real emergencies. More will be done between 2008 and 2011 to work with building owners and occupiers to reduce the number of false alarms and introduce ways of filtering false alarms.
A high profile public affairs campaign to get sprinkler systems installed in new and refurbished buildings where the risk justifies it will continue during 2008 to 2011 - as will another to reduce the massive disruption that fires involving acetylene cylinders can cause. Cigarettes and smoking materials cause nearly half of accidental fatal fires. The Brigade will campaign to ensure a UK and Europe-wide fire safer cigarette standard is put in place. These cigarettes self extinguish and their mandatory introduction could reduce the number of fire deaths.
Work to deliver a new fire station in Havering is progressing. Three units at the Falcon Business Centre on the Harold Hill Industrial Estate in Romford have been purchased and it is hoped work will begin early in 2008 to transform the site into a 21st century fire station.
The Brigade wants to limit the impact it has on the environment - at operational incidents, at its buildings and from its fleet. More renewable energy schemes to install wind turbines, solar hot water systems and other equipment at fire stations will be implemented over the next few years as part of a rolling £4.4m programme of projects and the Brigade will meet London's Low Emission Zone requirements when they are introduced next year.
"Londoners continue to see firefighters and the London Fire Brigade at the forefront of work to make the capital safer," said London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson.
"Firefighters and our other staff already make a real difference in terms of protecting the communities they serve. This plan sets out how we aim to increasingly target those at most risk from fire.
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