Emergency services / Health and safety notice on three fire stations lifted
AN IMPROVEMENT notice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regarding welfare arrangements at the Bressay, Walls and Hillswick fire stations has been lifted.
Local fire chief Matt Mason told a meeting of Shetland’s community safety and resilience board on Wednesday that the status of the buildings has been changed to “garages”, with crews routinely working from other stations.
He said there also been additional support given around post-fire decontamination.
The HSE also said there was no running water at the Walls station and no portaloo at the one in Hillswick.
But Mason said the conditions of the improvement notice have now been met.
He also told the meeting that the fire service was in the early stages of developing a modular solution that could potentially have facilities like a toilet and shower contained within.
The fire chief confirmed that shower facilities will be fitted in the Unst and Whalsay fire stations, which he described as an “excellent step forward”.
However board chairman councillor Allison Duncan said in his view there remained a problem with kit facilities in the Whalsay station, with no lockers available.
He was given reassurance that the issue will be looked into, and that kit kept in a fire station should always be clean and not contaminated.
SFRS deputy assistant chief officer Ian McMeekin also said that there will be a nationwide strategic assessment of all stations in Scotland, including a risk assessment for fire contaminants.
Duncan said that if there was no progress on Unst and Whalsay by the time of the next meeting in November then he will report the matter to the HSE.
Meanwhile Mason said a joint mobilisation initiative allowing two stations to combine firefighters for a call-out if they are unable to individually meet minimum numbers is “working well” in Shetland.
He said the pilot project has received “positive feedback from crews”.
“It provides us with a little bit more resilience,” Mason added.
Duncan also had words of praise for Bressay crew who voluntarily went around the island knocking on doors to see if they could get more recruits to the local station.
A report to the board said that between April and June there was zero per cent availability at the Bressay station, excluding joint mobilisation. It had four crew members during this time.
However the meeting heard one crew member had been unavailable for a period of time, which has been a “challenge”, according to Mason.
But the fire chief said there is one person who is in the recruitment process to join the island’s station, with other notes of interest too.
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