Protection of heritage and environment gets new focus in fire and rescue service response

Published	28 August 2008

Hazel Blears today unveiled new guidance to the Fire and Rescue Services to integrate better protection for historic buildings and the environment into Fire and Rescue Service planning.

Fire and Rescue Services are to gather and integrate information to help deal with fire or other emergencies (eg floods or chemical incidents) in sensitive environments and historic sites into their strategic planning. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will announce this today when she addresses the national Fire Conference in Liverpool.

Hazel Blears will say:

"We know that accidental, deliberate and natural fires and water run-off can have devastating effects on lives, the environment and the economy. The guidance will help the Fire and Rescue Service plan with others how to reduce the effects of such incidents making the most of sharing such valuable information, given we have a growing population and a changing climate."

Key steps outlined in the guidance are:

Understand the issues and determine the scope for the FRS;
Carry out risk analysis;
Develop strategies for prevention, protection and operational response;
Deliver by knowing the area and liaising with local organisations and owners;
Monitor and review the approach including debriefing after incidents.

Fires in historic buildings and the countryside can have devastating effects. This is not only because of the loss of rare valuable buildings or artworks; outdoor 'wildfires' can have considerable direct and indirect impacts on society including: health and well-being, water supplies, the local economy such as the farming, tourism and recreation. Projected climate change highlights the urgency with which fire prevention planning for wildfires should be addressed.

Many will remember the fires at the Cutty Sark, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and Uppark House.

The five-day fire at Thursley Common - a national nature reserve in Surrey - in summer 2006, is just one example of a fire posing a threat to some of the country's rarest wildlife. The fire destroyed two-thirds of the 400 hectare site of birch trees and heather that provided shelter for the rare birds, the nightjar and Dartford warbler.

Where fires affect crops, losses can be in the order of £1000/hectare given the 2007 Essex example of 1 tonne of wheat at £110 or peas at £129.

While the firefighters' priority will always be to save life, safeguarding heritage both built and natural environment should be an essential component of an FRS integrated risk management strategy.

The focus of the guidance is to identify, measure and reduce the commercial, social and economic impact that fire and other emergencies can be expected to have on individuals, communities, commerce, industry, the environment and heritage.

The guidance helps FRS to build particular heritage and environmental aspects of their own local risk in to each of England's 45 Fire and Rescue Services' risk management plans by setting out how they will contribute towards the protection of our heritage and the contribution it makes to the economy and culture for local people and visitors to the UK.

The new guidance encourages all FRS to work closely and liaise with owners and various local heritage and environment representatives, such as English Heritage, the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and National Trust so that a co-ordinated, well informed approach can be achieved.

This guidance has been welcomed by the National Trust, Forestry Commission and English Heritage.

Supporting the guidance Forestry Commission England director Paul Hill-Tout said:

"Wildfire incidents are infrequent in England, but these fires can have significant impact upon our communities, wildlife and economies. We also need to consider that climate change may lead to more wildfires and we need to prepare for that now.

"We can't plan for every eventuality so a risk-based approach is vital. In partnership we can now focus on the greatest impact, so that we can be prepared to prevent, and respond to, wildfires.

"This guidance is the result of two years of collaboration between the Forestry Commission, the Department for Communities and Local Government, several fire and rescue services and the Chief Fire Officers Association. It strengthens our resilience to climate change which is a key action within the Strategy for England's Trees, Woodland and Forests."

Heritage sites include listed properties, Unesco World heritage sites, historic city centres, moored vessels and thatched properties.

Information gathered for Integrated Risk Management Planning will help to build a database for the Fire and Rescue Service to access when planning how to reduce such risks and to respond to such incidents when they do arise. A key development for the Fire and Rescue Service is the fitting of mobile data terminals (MDTs) into all fire appliances throughout the country. This is part of the major investment by the Government to create a resilient fire and rescue service. The MDT will receive via secure digital radio communications, site plans, the location of water supplies and incident handling guidance from the new nationally linked network of fire control centres. The information will be available to all fire appliances even if the incident is so large that they have to be mobilised to attend incidents well outside their normal county.

FRS also have to ensure that their planning scenario takes into account the potential requirement to mount simultaneous firefighting and salvage operations possibly involving staff and occupiers. It also guides on working with the owners on appropriate fire prevention measures such as automatic fire detection and various fire suppression systems and water leak detection.

Notes to editors

The Environment Agency says that it attends an estimated 39 per cent fewer incidents as a consequence of FRS attendance. The time saved by the Environment Agency can be used for other important environmental protection work. The current cost of pollution incidents to the UK economy is £136million - it is likely that this figure would be much higher without the intervention of the FRS.

Firefighting can produce large amounts of water contaminated by the results of the fire running off the land and potentially into water courses. This and other spillages may contain environmentally damaging materials. It is known that in the emergency and non-emergency phases of an incident, Fire and Rescue Service intervention can significantly reduce the impact that such run-off may have on the environment. Such actions can also provide significant public health benefits. Public drinking water is drawn from rivers, lakes, lochs and groundwater. FRS activities to protect these waters will help safeguard public drinking water supplies and consequently public health.

Non-fire incidents, such as flooding, may also result in environmental impact from a site which the FRS may be able to work with those responsible for the risk and other partners to reduce the effect. FRS pollution prevention and control activities can therefore be associated with the FRS stated aim of protecting public safety. The guidance says that this philosophy should be borne in mind when prioritising environmental protection as an objective within the FRA's strategic, systematic and dynamic risk assessment process.

There are also significant cost benefits to the UK when FRS personnel implement early 'first aid' measures such as sealing a leak, blocking a drain or using a 'controlled burn' strategy. It is quite simply more expensive to clean up pollution from the environment than from a containment reservoir provided by the service.

Nature has the ability to start its own fires through lightening strikes on tinder dry land. While such wildfires in forest, heathland, agricultural and other vegetation, have long been a part of our ecosystems, and some plants are dependent on them to reproduce, they can have considerable direct and indirect impacts on society, the economy, health and well-being (air and soil pollution), species diversity and may impact directly upon the transport and recreation sectors.

However, such fires can also be started inadvertently by neighbours, the general public being careless or malicious and hot exhausts or sparks from tractors or locomotives. The guidance advises on the special conditions and climatic influences that are ideal for wildfire to occur. Projected climate change highlights the urgency with which fire prevention planning for wildfires should be addressed and become a key part of FRA planning.

The IRMP Steering Group Integrated Risk Management Planning - Policy Guidance: