Cuts put fire crews and public at risk, says union

Cuts to one of Dorset's busiest fire stations are putting firefighters and the public at "immediate risk", a union has said.

Poole fire station now has one 24-hour-crewed fire engine after the second was removed on 21 October. A third fire engine is crewed by retained, on-call firefighters.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said some of Poole's wholetime firefighters had also been relocated to cover shortages at other stations, leaving Poole more reliant on retained crews.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue (DWFR) said the changes aimed to address its "financial challenges" but would also allow it to increase fire cover elsewhere.

The changes, including the removal of fire engines from four other stations in September, were announced by DWFR in August.

The FBU said, in the four days after Poole's fire engine was removed, its retained crews were called to 15 incidents, "five times more than predicted by the fire service".

Val Hampshire, FBU Executive Council member for the South West, said: "The sudden removal of Poole’s second fire engine has immediately put the public and firefighters at greater risk.

"Slashing resources from one of the busiest fire stations in the county has already proved reckless and dangerous, pushing on-call firefighters beyond limits to respond to incidents.

"This week of chaos has made the impact of cuts all too clear."

A fire service spokesperson said: "This is also a programme of work that includes some reinvestment and will enable us to improve fire cover by increasing the number of wholetime firefighter posts at Westlea fire station and upgrading Amesbury and Dorchester fire stations from on-call only to on-call and wholetime.

"Dependant on our financial settlement for 2025/26 we will review the proposal to remove the second fire engine at another three on-call stations – Sherborne, Portland and Wimborne.

"This review will happen in early 2025."

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