Welcome to the Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service
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Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service is tasked with providing a service to one sixth the landmass of the United Kingdom - an area the size of Belgium. The population of around 280,000 and the industrial infrastructure are spread across the large mainland area and numerous islands. Communications can be difficult and many communities need to be almost effectively self sufficient, in the knowledge that support of any kind may be hours away. Protecting the people and economy of this area is therefore a demanding challenge that requires an innovative and caring response. ..
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The Fire and Rescue Service has a training facility at Invergordon and additional facilities in Inverness. During a typical year around 900 students will pass through the Training School and a further 120 will attend outreach courses delivered by the Training Department in the Districts. |
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| The Service's Fire Control Centre is based in Inverness and as well as handling the full range of operational calls normally associated with Fire and Rescue Service work it is particularly involved in the preplanning for countryside fires and supporting the work of Districts in organising Countryside Fire Groups and administering their fire plans. This role can pay dividends when the area is afflicted with severe fire seasons in the late winter and spring. |
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The unique demands of the Fire and Rescue Service have caused it to develop the capacity to build its own fire appliances. The Engineering and Supply function based in Inverness pioneered this work and they not only design and build the appliances but also maintain the extensive fleet. As well as "mini" and "midi" fire appliances for some of our Retained Units the department also works in partnership with airport authorities to develop dual purpose 4x4 appliances that serve both as CAA approved airfield tenders and the needs of community fire cover. |
The Fire and Rescue Service is currently delivered through a network of 127 stations consisting of 1 Wholetime, 95 Retained and 31 Community Response Units. Locally based multi role professional officers centred in 11 District Offices administer these stations. These officers provide all Community Risk Management, Operational, Training and Administration suppport to their designated stations and surrounding communities. The offices are located in Inverness, Aviemore, Fort William, Invergordon, Ullapool, Dornoch, Thurso, Stornoway, Benbecula, Kirkwall, and Lerwick.
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The Fire and Rescue Service is committed to the aim of Community Fire Safety and has recently reorganised its priority workloads to reflect this. Partnership working experience is invaluable to the Fire and Rescue Service and a number of initiatives have sprung from it. As part of the | |
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Service's strategic view of fire safety education it has worked with local authority Community Safety Partners to obtain Scottish Executive support for developing a British version of the successful American " Risk Watch " child education syllabus for schools. This risk awareness project is now being piloted in schools throughout Scotland. |
Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service is faced with one of the most demanding areas of the country to serve. It is a service for the community, staffed by the people of it's communities and it has restructured to drive forward the necessary improvements to better serve and support the communities that it is part of.
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