Evaluation of police and fire reform year 4: international perspectives

7 Reforming fire and rescue services

International perspectives on reform of the fire service

Key findings: Reforming fire and rescue services

• In all of the international case study locations, the role of the firefighter has widened to include new roles, such as: medical first response, fire prevention, and responding to terrorist threats and the effects of severe weather. 
• In addition to generalist firefighters, all four fire services have a number of specialist roles which differ depending on local requirements. These specialist roles include: hazardous materials; road accident response; medical response; land management; Search and Rescue; technical land rescue; technical water rescue; and Airport Crash Rescue.
• Where specialist services are placed is based on need but also on capacity. On the whole, large cities are more likely to have more specialist firefighters due to population density and service capacity, but some rural areas will have specific specialist skills, for example, Land Management Teams.
• The fire services in New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands are made up of a mix of career firefighters who work full-time in the role and retained (or volunteer) firefighters who are employed on a part-time basis. The majority of firefighters in these countries are retained. The West Midlands is the only fire service from the case studies which is made up of 100% full-time paid firefighters.

Challenges experienced by the widening role of the fire service include the emotional impact of responding to medical emergencies, additional training requirements to responding to widening activities and pay disputes because of widening role.

This chapter discusses changes to the role of the firefighters in each of the four fire services, and includes changes relating to: 

• activities undertaken by firefighters; 
• the level of generalist and specialist skills; and 
• the balance of career firefighters and retained (volunteers). 

Challenges experienced as a result of the widening role of the firefighter are also presented.

7.1 The widening activities undertaken by firefighters

Traditionally the role of the firefighter is to respond to fires, prevent fires from happening and protect people and buildings from fires. In recent years there have been changes in the activities undertaken by firefighters in all four areas. Some of these changes were a result of reform, others reflected changes in community need.

7.1.1 Changes to number and types of fire callouts

As in Scotland, all the fire services described having experienced a reduction in the number of fires over time that they attend. This, in part, has led to firefighters taking on new tasks as they have more capacity to do so, which are discussed in more detail below. 

While the reduction in fires has enabled firefighters to take on new roles, the fire services stress that the current infrastructure needs to be maintained to effectively respond to fires when they occur. In Alberta, while firefighters are responding to fewer fires overall the view is that the fires they are dealing with are bigger and more intense. There is a view that as these fires take up more resources and are more costly to deal with, they do not, in fact, need to reduce the fire service in spite of the reduction in the overall number of fires.

“The evidence shows that there has been a reduction in Fire and Rescue related incidents but we still need the resources because they still occur. But we have to find other ways to utilise those firefighters when they have got that capacity to reduce vulnerability.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

Fewer fires have also meant firefighters are required to commit more time to training to ensure that their firefighter skills are maintained.

“They will undertake significant amounts of training activities, recognising as the number of incidents have gone down, the amount of training required has to go up to maintain that level of competence, or excellence is what we try to achieve in the skill sets of our firefighters. (Interviewee: West Midlands)

7.1.2 Increased medical first response

While the number of fires that firefighters respond to has reduced over time, firefighters in several countries have increasingly taken on the role of medical first response. There is also recognition that because fire services are based within communities, and are physically closer to incidents, they are able to respond more quickly to medical emergencies.

In Alberta and New Zealand, the fire service works alongside the ambulance service to respond to medical emergencies.

“If someone calls 911 with a medical .. with a request for a medical assistance, that call’s evaluated, and if it's evaluated as something that's immediately life-threatening, Fire & Rescue is dispatched along with our provincial ambulance response.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

Many of the fire services have found that the volume of medical emergencies that firefighters are responding to has increased rapidly. In Alberta, waiting times for ambulances have contributed to this as the fire service responds when ambulances are not available.

“What’s becoming much more prevalent is the long wait times for ambulances to offload patients in hospitals. Therefore, the Fire Service is picking up a lot of that response primarily on the life threatening critical medical emergencies to provide that stop gap of care until an ambulance can respond.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

All fire services reported that firefighters (full-time/career and retained/volunteer) are trained in basic medical response skills, such as advanced CPR skills and oxygen administration, but skills varied across the different services. Historically, in some departments in Alberta (and in other parts of Canada) firefighters must be trained paramedics before they can join the fire service. This requires all staff to undertake regular training to maintain both firefighter and medical first response skills: 

“It takes a lot of time; however we believe that it’s the best service model for the citizens of our community.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

The West Midlands is the only fire service we spoke to that did not respond to medical emergencies. It was explained by interviewees that due to the local Ambulance Trust outperforming on targets, it does not currently require the additional support from the fire service.

7.1.3 Fire prevention

In addition to medical response, the reduction in fires has enabled firefighters to undertake more fire prevention work, both with the community as a whole and with target groups. The role of prevention in the work of firefighters is explored in Chapter 10.

Some services see prevention work as the most effective way to reduce fire deaths and are investing in this work.

“We have about 40 people in domestic fires killed every year…We can build another thousand fire stations in the Netherlands. It's not going to reduce the death, so we have to do more on behaviour of citizens, do more on prevention, more community safety, and that’s gonna reduce the casualties…if we want to make a difference in saving lives, we have to do more on prevention.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

7.1.4 Extreme weather and terrorist threats

In addition to responding to more medical incidents, firefighters in the international case studies are increasingly responding to more severe weather which causes destruction and disruption to communities. All fire services also mentioned that, while still rare, they are more frequently responding to terrorist threats.

“So in the last 10 years there’s definitely been changes in the role of a firefighter, not just with prevention type activities but also responding to terrorist type incidents, flooding, climate change I think has made a significant difference to the amount of flooding and the amount of dry spells we’re getting and the wildfires…” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

7.2 Have there been any changes in the balance of skills required by firefighters?

In all four fire services firefighters receive general training to become a firefighter. In addition to this, each service has a number of specialist roles. All fire services have specialist roles such as dealing with hazardous substances, but others differ depending on local requirements. Such specialist roles include:

• Road accident response
• Medical response
• Land management (e.g. vegetation, forest and wild fires)
• Search and Rescue
• Technical land rescue: e.g. Confined Space and Technical Rescue, Rope Rescue
• Technical water rescue: e.g. Swiftwater Response; Surface Water Rescue; Underwater Dive Rescue; Maritime Response; and Airport Crash Rescue.

7.2.1 A move to more specialist roles

In New Zealand, fire service reform and new legislation^[22] have resulted in a move towards more specialist roles, one of which is the development of Maritime Response. This change will mean firefighters should not need to have all skills sets and will separate general and specialist roles out more.

Across the fire services, specialist roles have developed as need has arisen and the role of the firefighter has changed to meet these needs. As a result, within a country, different regions may have different specialist teams, which is the case in the Netherlands. However, as the Netherlands fire service is organised at a national level, there are national level teams and agreements in place for regions to use specialist teams from other areas. The challenge of this is that it may take longer for the teams to respond and arrive at the scene.

“We share. All risks that are too big for one individual brigade, we organise on national level, so we have on national level 5 teams in the Netherlands who do heavy accidents. We have 6 drone teams who work with drones. We have teams who do rescue on high altitude. We have two teams of that. We have 6 hazmat teams in the Netherlands. So we organise specialist teams on national level.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

7.2.2 Capacity affects the distribution of specialist services

Where specialist services are placed is based on need but also on capacity. In Alberta, the large cities are more likely to have more specialist firefighters due to population density and service capacity, but some rural areas will have specific specialist skills, for example, Land Management Teams. Less densely populated areas will have smaller teams who are unlikely to have capacity to have a wide range of specialist skills.

All four fire services identified the need for firefighters to be well trained in a wide range of generalist skills as they are likely to be part of an initial response to an incident and need to have the skills to deal with it until specialist personnel can arrive.

“So in terms of generic and specialist skills, the fundamental principle of our integrated risk management plan is that we've distributed our firefighters with all of the same skills across the area in those 38 fire stations…they are distributed with the same skills, same equipment, in order to respond to the most serious incidents…So the vast majority of our workforce are skilled to be able to respond to that. We have a smaller number of people, Tech Rescue – Technical Rescue – which have enhanced skill base to respond to specialist type incidents for working at height, working in water – swiftwater – and other type of environments like building collapse.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

7.3 Have there been changes to the balance of full-time and retained staff?

In New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands, the fire service is made up of a mix of career firefighters who work full-time in the role and retained (or volunteer) firefighters who are employed on a part-time basis to be available on call. Retained (volunteer) firefighters will have other jobs and may be paid on call or in some areas they can sign-up for shifts. The West Midlands is the only fire service of the four that we spoke to in these case studies which is made up of 100% full-time paid firefighters.

How volunteer or retained staff are employed and paid varies across countries and even regions within a country. All volunteers get paid for their time working for the fire service e.g. attending incidents or for being on exercise or education. In the Netherlands retained/volunteer firefighters get paid a yearly fee.

“…they are on a volunteering base, they come in when there is an alarm and they go out, they get a yearly fee for it and there is also money for education, training, and to reach out.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

In all three countries with retained staff, the majority of firefighters are retained/volunteer. The proportion of career and retained/voluntary in a fire station is not consistent within countries or regions. However, in countries such as Canada, there tends to be more career firefighters in urban areas and a higher proportion of retained/voluntary firefighters in rural areas. While the majority of firefighters are currently volunteers in the Netherlands, there is concern voiced by several respondents that in the future it will be challenging to recruit and retain volunteers. One interviewee believes this is in part due to the amount of training that is required to become a firefighter as the service becomes more professionalised.

“The balance is showing that it will not be easy to enrol these people [volunteers], or to get them because of the education and training they have to do to be a good firefighter. And that’s one of the main problems we have to face in the future, that what you see is also by inspections and professionalising, that we are asking more and more of our volunteers…” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

7.4 What challenges and opportunities are there in the widening role of the local firefighter?

Many of the fire services have experienced challenges as a result of the role of the firefighter widening , particularly in relation to the medical first response role being undertaken. Challenges with the widening role of the firefighter which relate to community relations, partnerships and prevention are discussed in the following chapters.

7.4.1 The impact of becoming medical first responders on firefighters

An interviewee from New Zealand articulated the multifaceted challenges for firefighters attending medical emergencies. The first challenge firefighters have experienced, was the public not accepting medical help from firefighters when they are the first to respond. In addition to dealing with the medical emergency, firefighters have had to deal with the reaction to their presence at incidents.

“The one thing that is a challenge for us is actually preparing our staff for that changing role…By putting them in to this new environment, there are a number of things that are happening. Firstly, often in stressful situations the public aren't accepting our firefighters turning up …That creates a bit of a problem right at the start you know, “I called an ambulance. I don’t want a fire engine”, type thing. That creates tension within our own staff.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

Responding to medical emergencies was also described as being challenging for firefighters emotionally, particularly in small communities where firefighters may know the casualty.

“Probably the most profound thing…80% of our staff are a volunteer often – as with many of their incidents – people they're attending are people they know and so that is causing cumulative grief effects, and you'll have exactly the same of that in your volunteer and retained communities.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

In medical emergencies, even if firefighters are first to respond, an ambulance will take a casualty to hospital. In these circumstances, firefighters may not find out what the outcome is for an individual which they can find difficult.

Preparing firefighters for the new roles they are undertaking is a challenge for fire services. Some services are beginning to respond by making changes to the training firefighters are offered to include more project management, communication and leadership skills. For example, in New Zealand the fire service is exploring how to advertise and recruit volunteers to show that there are a wide range of activities that people take part in, not just fighting fires.

7.4.2 Pay disputes related to the widening role of the firefighter

In the West Midlands, the widening of the role of the firefighters led to a dispute regarding a pay increase between the Fire Brigades Union and the Fire Service. While the role of the firefighter is widening, and firefighters have been taking on a range of prevention work and had a contract to respond to elderly residents who had fallen in the home, this work is now on hold while the dispute is being resolved. 

“Experience with us as an organisation is that firefighters don’t want to do some of this additional work…they would be quite happy to do the EMR (Emergency Medical Response) – so the Red 1 responding, the cardiac arrest. They're quite happy to do that type of work. The wider health work certainly, for us as an organisation, there was a real resistance to enter in to that without more pay…” (Interviewee: West Midlands)