Fire station facilities ‘not helping’ recruitment situation

THE LACK of facilities in some of Shetland’s fire stations is “not helping the situation” regarding recruitment of fire fighters, a meeting has heard.

The facilities at a few stations such as Bressay and Walls have come under fire in recent months, particularly from the chairman of Shetland’s community safety and resilience board councillor Allison Duncan.

Duncan was in attendance at the stations in question recently alongside representatives from the Fire Brigades Union.

One representative said Bressay was the “worst station I have seen in 20 years”.

Some of the concerns relate to the lack of toilet and shower facilities.

The matter was raised again at a meeting of the community safety and resilience board on Wednesday.

Shetland West councillor Liz Peterson asked whether the issue was affecting recruitment of fire fighters, adding that in her personal view “as a female that would put me off from applying”.

Area commander for the Scottish islands Scott Gibson said “it does not help the situation”.

“As a service we are eager to recruit all the demographics and recruit as much as we can into the stations,” he added.

Gibson also referred to the financial pressures facing the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as a whole.

He said there is an “insurmountable backlog” of capital works that has been inherited and trying to prioritise finances to improve these facilities is proving “nigh on impossible”.

However the meeting heard that there could be a new set-up in place locally in terms of firefighters decontaminating.

This would see firefighters at stations lacking showers being able to use facilities at more equipped ones such as Brae or Lerwick before returning.

The meeting also heard that for some fire stations there have been agreements with community venues such as halls to use facilities like showers, but this avenue has now been “exhausted”.