| Small Fire Units will help in fighting non-critical fires and reducing the number of false alarms |
The unit will attend non-critical fires, freeing up the larger fire engines to attend to life-threatening incidents such as property fires.
A fire and rescue service based in Hampshire has launched a specialist unit to deal with small fires, in moves aimed at ensuring the larger appliances are available for larger fires. The new Small Fires Vehicle, which will service the Redbridge Hill and St Mary's fire stations in Southampton, will be on-call 24 hours a day.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service has announced that the Small Fires Unit will be made up of one manager, one firefighter, and a community safety liaison officer. The unit will attend non-critical fires, freeing up the larger fire engines to attend to life-threatening incidents such as property fires. Also, the new unit may have the side effect of reducing false alarms that the larger appliance have to attend, increasing the time they have to fight real fires. Tom Carr, Southampton's group manager, said there is a precedent in the area for smaller vehicles being valuable to a fire service.
"The Service's 'First Response Vehicle', based at Redbridge Hill, has already demonstrated that smaller units can be used to combat non critical incidents including and help tackle antisocial behaviour responsible for many small fires," he said. The Small Fires Unit will also help try to bring down arson complaints in the local community.