Fire and Rescue Service hits one of its toughest targets

During 2014/15, the Fire and Rescue Service averaged seven minutes and twenty nine seconds to arrive at the 5,905 incidents to which it was called.

The target is for the service to arrive on the scene at 80 per cent of emergencies in 11 minutes or less and 95 per cent of emergencies in 14 minutes or less.

In 2014/15 on average the first fire engine arrived at 85.02 per cent of emergencies in 11 minutes or less and 95.29 per cent of emergencies in 14 minutes or less, from the time the station was first alerted.

As for the Fire and Rescue’s work at emergency incidents, 98 per cent of people who the service responded to in an emergency in their homes were satisfied with the efforts of firefighters – including keeping the effects of an incident to a minimum.

During the course of 2014/15 Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service was once again given the Customer Service Excellence award.

The award is a government backed standard that demonstrates how much the organisation continues to focus its activities effectively on meeting the needs of the people of Oxfordshire.

Councillor Rodney Rose, the Deputy Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “Congratulations to everybody in the fire and rescue service for meeting these targets.

“The fact that in previous years the Fire and Rescue did not meet the targets they have drawn up for themselves proves conclusively that they were tough and stretching targets that are no easy-win.

“The fact that Fire and Rescue feels the needs to set itself targets that are difficult to reach demonstrates that there is a healthy culture of wanting constant improvement.

“As the South-East’s most rural county, hitting incident attendance targets is never going to be an easy job.”

Proud of Fire and Rescue

Councillor Rose added: “Oxfordshire County Council is proud to have the Fire and Rescue Service as one of its services. There is a high level of co-operation between Fire and Rescue and all of the other departments at the council.

“Firefighters even assist adult and children’s social care by returning safeguarding alerts when they spot matters of concern during their attendance at incidents. There were 88 examples of those during 2014/15.

“Well done to Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue. The county has a service of which it can be proud.”