Cookham fire station closes (From Bucks Free Press)

Cookham fire station closes due to lack of firefighters

12:50pm Wednesday 22nd July 2009 in Search By James Nadal

COOKHAM fire station has been forced to close because of a lack of firefighters.

The station in Berries Road, which is manned by retained part-time crew, only has five fire fighters which is twelve short of providing a basic service.

The specialist off-road vehicle and crew that were based there have been moved to Maidenhead Fire Station.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) said recruitng retained fire crew had been a long term problem but numbers had fallen so low that it decided to provide emergency fire cover from Maidenhead.

Area Manager Andy Mancey, responsible for day to day response and operational matters for RBFRS, said: “We cannot provide an acceptable standard of service to the public, or meet our health safety and welfare responsibilities to our staff, with just five firefighters at Cookham.

“This is not a new problem - we have for many years struggled to recruit sufficient staff for Cookham.

“Many residents work away from the area and so are not available for training and turnout to incidents.

“Even if we find committed local people who are willing to become retained firefighters, we have found that the economic climate means that employers are unwilling to release their staff for firefighting duties.”

Cookham’s fire engine was replaced with a smaller, multi-purpose firefighting vehicle earlier this year.

Mr Mancey said: “This needed fewer firefighters to operate it but it has been difficult to maintain even these lower crew levels, hence the need to take action.

“Cookham has always been covered by Maidenhead, which sent a second fire engine to emergency incidents if required.

“The current arrangement is working well and, in fact, Maidenhead’s first fire engine can reach Cookham more quickly than the retained fire engine, because of the five-minute delay in turnout of a retained crew.”

The move will be under review and the service will be trying to encourage more Cookham residents to become retained firefighters, Mr Mancey added.

More information about becoming a retained firefighter can be found at www.rbfrs.co.uk.