Dynamic Resource Management

Contents

Dynamic Resource Management 1

Introduction.. 2

Frequency of DRM Use. 3

Impact on Critical Fire Response. 4

Impact on Critical Special Service Response. 8

Average Engine Availability. 9

Financial Impact 9

Impact on Prevention and Protection Activity. 12

Impact Other Resources (mobilisations) 13

Preston Area Impacts. 14

Blackpool Area Impacts. 15

Blackburn Area Impacts. 16

Burnley Area Impacts. 17

 

 


 

Introduction

1.    Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) has robust systems in place to monitor, manage, and dynamically deploy our fire engines and firefighters to respond to emergencies across Lancashire.

 

2.    There are 58 fire engines and a number of specialist appliances in the county however some are often unavailable due to many reasons: ongoing incidents; training; maintenance; leave or sickness absence; unavailability of on-call staff; and other operational reasons.

 

3.    When there is a crewing shortage, we take steps to keep a fire engine or specialist appliance available, by bringing in firefighters from other stations (we call this detaching) or on overtime.

 

4.    With improved technology and access to more comprehensive data, we now have a greater understanding of fire risk across Lancashire. As a result, we have changed this approach to ensure sufficient resources are available in the areas that need them and reduce unnecessary overtime.

 

5.    Firefighters who crew a second fire engine may be detached to maintain the availability of a first fire engine somewhere else, making that fire engine temporarily unavailable. This only occurs when the first fire engine is available as well as other fire engines in the area and this ensures we maintain a balanced level of fire cover across the county.

 

6.    This forms part of a dynamic, risk-based approach to managing resources effectively.

 

7.    Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service continually assesses and adjusts our operational resources to ensure the best possible emergency response across the county.

 

8.    Using technology, we can see at any given time where live incidents are located, which fire engines are attending, which fire engines are available, and which are temporarily offline for training, maintenance, or crewing. This data is combined with five years’ previous incident data to highlight community risk, enabling us to position fire engines in precisely the locations they are needed.

 

9.    Every decision we make is guided by our commitment to public safety. Whether it is moving a fire engine to cover a neighbouring area or investing in new technology, our goal is always the same: to ensure that every community in Lancashire receives a timely and effective emergency response.

 

10. The Dynamic Resource Management (DRM) policy came into effect on  01 July 2025, it is a policy which provides steps which can be taken prior to using overtime to fill shortfalls, such as redistributing the crew from second fire engines at 2 pump wholetime stations where there is adequate fire cover in the area.

 

11. The four, two pump wholetime stations within LFRS are Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and Preston. DRM will only be enacted if the first fire engine at that station and neighbouring station(s) are available, the table below highlights which engines must be available to enact DRM:

DRM Stations

Engines that must be available to enact DRM

Blackburn

Blackburn P1

Darwen P1

 

Blackpool

Blackpool P1

Bispham P1

South Shore P1

Burnley

Burnley P1

Nelson P1

 

Preston

Preston P1

Fulwood P1

Penwortham P1

 

 

Frequency of DRM Use

Engine

# DRM Q2

% DRM

Blackpool

40

22%

Preston

34

18%

Blackburn

22

12%

Burnley

28

15%

Total

124

17%

 

*Data from 01/07/25 – 30/09/2025

12. DRM has been used a total of 124 times in Q2. 124 occasions out of a total of 736 available shifts across the four stations in that timeframe, representing DRM being enacted on 17% of available shifts.


Impact on Critical Fire Response

13. Critical fire incidents are defined as incidents that are likely to involve a significant threat to life, structures, or the environment. Our response standards, in respect of critical fires, are variable and are determined by the risk map (KPI 2.1) and subsequent risk grade of the Super Output Area (SOA) in which the fire occurred. The response standards include call handling and fire engine response time for the first fire engine attending a critical fire, and are as follows:

fire engine response time for the first fire engine attending a critical fire

 

14.When reviewing our critical fire response times and any impacts since DRM has been initiated, there has been no detrimental impact on any incident outcomes. In the current year, there have been fewer fires in low and medium risk LSOAs and an increase in high and very high risk LSOAs, when compared to the previous year. Across the four stations where DRM is enacted, response times have improved when compared to the same period last year, (by 20 seconds) in all but the low-risk category, though this remains substantially under the 12-minute average response time target. Since DRM was introduced at the start of quarter 2 (Q2), overall response times at DRM stations have increased by 6 seconds compared with Q2 2024, whereas response times across all stations over the same period have increased by 20 seconds, highlighting that DRM has not had substantial impacts on our ability to meet the published response standards.

DRM Stations

 

Critical Fire
Response

Target

(Mins)

2024/25

2025/26

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

 

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

 

L

12

07:41

20

07:57

16

07:07

11

08:42

12

07:48

36

07:56

23

 

M

10

06:23

51

06:03

44

05:46

45

06:09

44

06:14

95

05:57

89

 

H

8

06:13

11

05:39

9

05:21

14

06:11

10

05:58

20

05:42

24

 

VH

6

05:36

6

05:38

7

05:50

11

04:35

5

05:37

13

05:27

16

 

Overall

06:36

88

06:22

76

05:53

81

06:28

71

06:30

164

06:10

152

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Blackburn Station

Critical Fire Response

Target
(mins)

2024/2025

2025/2026

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

L

12

10:21

4

09:29

3

07:12

3

10:10

6

09:58

7

09:11

9

M

10

06:36

16

06:32

13

06:46

12

06:20

21

06:34

29

06:30

33

H

8

05:49

3

05:55

2

03:38

1

05:11

2

05:51

5

04:40

3

VH

6

-

0

-

0

-

0

-

0

-

0

-

0

Overall

07:09

23

06:57

18

06:39

16

07:03

29

07:04

41

06:55

45

 

Blackpool Station

Critical Fire Response

Target
(mins)

2024/2025

2025/2026

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

L

12

07:16

8

08:13

7

04:03

1

07:26

4

07:43

15

06:45

5

M

10

05:46

11

07:48

6

05:07

19

05:38

8

06:29

17

05:16

27

H

8

05:20

6

05:38

4

07:07

1

05:30

3

05:27

10

05:54

4

VH

6

05:26

4

05:31

3

05:19

8

04:35

5

05:28

7

05:02

13

Overall

06:03

29

07:10

20

05:12

29

05:42

20

06:30

49

05:24

49

 


 

Burnley Station

Critical Fire Response

Target
(mins)

2024/2025

2025/2026

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

L

12

04:56

3

08:30

2

08:58

4

-

0

06:21

5

08:58

4

M

10

06:16

15

04:48

15

05:37

5

06:03

10

05:32

30

05:54

15

H

8

-

0

05:28

1

05:10

7

06:56

4

05:28

1

05:49

11

VH

6

03:09

1

04:00

2

-

0

-

0

03:43

3

-

0

Overall

05:53

19

05:08

20

06:15

16

06:18

14

05:30

39

06:17

30

 

Preston Station

 

Critical Fire Response

Target
(mins)

2024/2025

2025/2026

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

L

12

07:51

5

06:02

4

05:34

3

06:49

2

07:02

9

06:04

5

M

10

06:57

9

06:16

10

05:52

9

06:26

7

06:36

19

06:07

16

H

8

09:29

2

05:29

2

05:37

5

07:56

5

07:29

4

06:47

10

VH

6

08:40

1

07:25

2

07:14

3

-

0

07:50

3

07:14

3

Overall

07:37

17

06:16

18

05:58

20

07:01

14

06:55

35

06:24

34

 


 

 

All LFRS Stations

 

Critical Fire Response

Target
(mins)

2024/2025

2025/2026

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

L

12

08:51

20

09:02

16

09:07

11

09:21

12

08:57

36

09:14

23

M

10

07:00

51

06:54

44

07:05

45

07:07

46

06:58

95

07:06

91

H

8

07:12

11

06:35

9

05:37

14

06:38

14

06:53

20

06:07

28

VH

6

06:02

6

05:55

7

05:49

11

05:00

5

05:59

13

05:31

16

Overall

07:40

88

07:42

76

07:38

81

08:02

77

07:41

164

07:49

158

 

 


 

Impact on Critical Special Service Response

15.Critical special service incidents are non-fire incidents where there is a risk to life, for example, road traffic collisions, rescues, and hazardous materials incidents. For these incidents there is a single response standard which measures call handling time and fire engine response time.

The response standard for the first fire engine attending a critical special service call = 13 minutes
 

 


16. When reviewing our critical special service response times and any impacts since DRM has been initiated, there has been little impact as a direct result of DRM. In Q2 2025, there were 204 critical special service incidents within the 4 station areas where DRM occurs. Since DRM was introduced at the start of Q2, overall response times at DRM stations have increased by 52 seconds compared with Q2 2024, whereas response times across all stations over the same period have increased by 11 seconds. Whilst this is a higher increase than overall, our response times remain substantially under the 13-minute average response time target, and our Key Performance Indicator demonstrates that performance levels continue to be met since the introduction of DRM.

Critical SSC
Response

Target
(mins)

2024/25

2025/26

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

Q1

Incs

Q2

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

Blackburn

13

08:12

66

07:54

56

09:01

53

09:09

61

09:05

114

08:16

98

Blackpool

06:47

56

06:40

47

07:38

62

06:48

52

07:15

114

09:05

114

Burnley

07:18

48

06:50

44

07:28

35

08:12

42

07:52

77

07:15

114

Preston

07:46

45

08:45

54

07:57

49

09:40

49

08:48

98

07:52

77

DRM Stations

07:32

215

07:37

201

08:03

199

08:29

204

08:16

416

08:48

403

LFRS Overall

08:22

716

08:36

690

08:38

666

08:47

681

08:29

1406

08:42

1347


Average Engine Availability

 

17.        As highlighted at the start of this paper, not every fire engine is always available due to various reasons. Robust performance monitoring is in place through various KPIs, below is a breakdown of average engine availability by month.

 

 

 

Apr 24 

May 24 

Jun 24 

Jul 24 

Aug 24 

Sep 24 

Oct 24 

Nov 24 

Dec 24 

Jan 25 

Feb 25 

Mar 25 

Apr 25 

May 25 

Jun 25 

Jul 25 

Aug 25 

Sep 25 

Available 

Pumps Avail (OC) 

21 

21 

20 

20 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

23 

22 

24 

24 

23 

23 

23 

23 

22 

Pumps Avail (WT) 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

25 

25 

25 

26 

Pumps Avail (All) 

47 

47 

46 

46 

46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

51 

49 

48 

50 

50 

49 

49 

48 

49 

48 

 

18. The average number of Wholetime fire engines available has reduced by one from 01 July 2025, On-Call fire engine availability has increased and whilst there is typically a drop in availability over the summer periods, there is still a significant upward trend compared to the 2024 summer period. Combined availability has resulted in LFRS maintaining an average of 48 fire engines available at any one time since DRM has been instigated, which is higher than the average availability over the same period last year.

 

Average Pumps Available

 

Financial Impact

19.Dynamic Resource Management aims to reduce the usage of overtime and overall budgetary pressures. Once DRM is enacted and a fire engine has been taken off the run, the remaining crew are redistributed to fill shortfalls as required.

 

20.The number of overtime shifts/activities recorded in Q2 2025, is 56. This is compared with 778 in Q2 2024.

 

Overtime Cost per Month

 

21. 56 overtime shifts across the three months represents a cost of £24,166. For the same period in 2024, the overtime bill was £289,342, this equates to a saving of £265,175. This figure includes on-costs (such as national insurance) and is for overtime shifts directly related to maintaining fire engine availability. To enable direct comparison, one pay figure has been used (2025), therefore the 2024 cost will be slightly over reported.


 

Detachment Cost per month

 

22.Average detachments have been increasing year on year, and the number of detachments has increased over the same period in 2025 compared to 2024. This is to be expected with DRM as staff are detached to cover shortfalls at other stations. When staff go on detachments overtime or time owing is incurred for travel to and from each detachment. This is capped at a total of 3 hours and can be taken as time or payment, the costs of detachments are significantly less than a full overtime shift. Detached duty payments for Q2 were £11,200. In 2024 the cost of detachments in Q2 was £10,000 (equivalent including pay rise), representing a 12% increase in 2025.

 

23.The actual numbers of detachments in Q2 2025 rose by 19% from 1197 in 2024, to 1420 in 2025. This shows that more firefighters are choosing to take time rather than payment than in 2024, which may ultimately have a detrimental impact on staff availability due to taking this time back.

 

 

Impact on Prevention and Protection Activity

24.Enacting DRM and temporarily removing a resource from a two-pump station for a shift is anticipated to reduce the available time to complete prevention and protection activity. Overall, LFRS operational crews carried out 20% less Business Fire Safety Checks (BFSC) in Q2 2025/26 compared with Q2 2024/25, and 14% less Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC) over the same period. Stations eligible for DRM have experienced a similar drop in BFSC numbers but a substantial drop in HFSC numbers (-28%). It is anticipated that enacting DRM will impact the activity at neighbouring stations due to an increase in mobilisations. This appears to be supported, as shown in the table below, DRM and neighbouring stations experienced a similar drop in BFSC as other stations, but a drop of 22% in HFSC, substantially greater than the overall reduction.

 

2024/25 – 2025/26 Q2 Comparison

 

% Change

Stations

BFSC

HFSC

All Ops

-20%

-14%

DRM Stations

-17%

-28%

DRM & Neighbouring Stations

-18%

-22%

Non-DRM Stations

-23%

-9%

 

 

Impact Other Resources (mobilisations)

25.By removing an appliance for a full shift, it is assumed that incident activity (mobilisations) will increase for the remaining, and neighbouring appliances.

As can be seen by the trend lines (linear) in the chart below, incidents have been increasing slightly year on year since 2018/19. Mobilisations have also been increasing, but at a greater rate.

 

26.Beyond prevention activities, Lancashire FRS has little control over the number of incidents which it faces annually (see 26).  However, policy decisions can have an impact on the number of mobilisations. One example is the Automatic Fire Alarm (AFA) policy which has been amended over recent years to remove non-life risk premises.

 

Incidents and Mobilisations per Year

Preston Area Impacts

27. Comparing Preston Q2 over the previous eight years, as expected, Preston L50P2 has been mobilised 68 times less than expected; whilst Preston L50P1, Penwortham L57P1 and Fulwood L52P1 have all experienced increases in mobilisations, though only Preston L50P1 has been out of the expected range of deviation. Bamber Bridge L53P1 has experienced a reduction in mobilisations, whilst within the expected deviation, it is nonetheless surprising and potentially indicates that Penwortham has picked up more of Preston’s mobilisations than Fulwood. This may be attributed to Fulwood being On Call at night.

 

 Fiscal Year

Quarter 

L50P1

L50P2

L57P1

L52P1

L53P1

2018-2019

Q2

302

347

293

204

302

2019-2020

Q2

270

435

246

253

246

2020-2021

Q2

246

422

228

244

227

2021-2022

Q2

269

483

289

251

294

2022-2023

Q2

300

508

349

274

266

2023-2024

Q2

316

457

300

300

269

2024-2025

Q2

289

449

305

259

219

2025-2026

Q2

324

375

312

272

236

Avg 2018/19-2024/25

285

443

287

255

260

Std Dev 2018/19-2024/25

22

47

37

27

29

Deviation 2025/26

39

-68

25

17

-24

 

Preston Area Q2 Comparison

Blackpool Area Impacts

28. Comparing Blackpool area Q2 mobilisations over the previous eight years, as expected, Blackpool L30P2 has experienced reduced mobilisations at 77 fewer than average, which is over three times the standard deviation. The majority of these mobilisations appear to have been absorbed by L30P1 and Bispham L31P1, with South Shore, St. Annes and Fleetwood all within expected activity levels. Fleetwood L32P1 is the only appliance not at a DRM station in Western area to have experienced fewer than average mobilisations.

 

Fiscal Year

Quarter 

L30P1

L30P2

L31P1

L32P1

L36P1

L37P1

2018-2019

Q2

265

370

253

165

171

261

2019-2020

Q2

208

387

231

198

160

278

2020-2021

Q2

215

416

270

217

151

298

2021-2022

Q2

223

422

210

222

186

384

2022-2023

Q2

232

413

231

211

199

365

2023-2024

Q2

220

370

211

195

144

286

2024-2025

Q2

230

362

256

160

149

284

2025-2026

Q2

316

314

290

177

166

344

Avg 2018/19-2024/25

228

391

237

195

166

308

Std Dev 2018/19-2024/25

17

23

21

23

19

44

Deviation 2025/26

88

-77

53

-18

0

36

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blackpool Area Q2 Comparison


 

Blackburn Area Impacts

29. Comparing Q2 mobilisations in Blackburn and neighbouring stations over the previous eight years, in Q2 2025/26 Blackburn L71P2 has experienced less than average mobilisations, but at 16 less than average, this is well within standard deviation. All other stations have had expected numbers of mobilisations, with Darwen L76P1 receiving the greatest increase.

 

 

Fiscal Year

Quarter 

L71P1

L71P2

L76P1

L70P1

2018-2019

Q2

250

498

193

366

2019-2020

Q2

217

434

175

345

2020-2021

Q2

207

429

165

358

2021-2022

Q2

214

472

220

382

2022-2023

Q2

289

516

269

467

2023-2024

Q2

242

442

190

336

2024-2025

Q2

244

426

185

421

2025-2026

Q2

255

444

231

384

Avg 2018/19-2024/25

238

460

200

382

Std Dev 2018/19-2024/25

26

33

32

43

Deviation 2025/26

17

-16

31

2

 

Blackburn Area Q2 Comparison


 

Burnley Area Impacts

30. Comparing Q2 mobilisations in Burnley and neighbouring station over the previous eight years, Burnley L90P2 has received 69 fewer mobilisations than average, almost double the standard deviation for that appliance. Burnley L90P1 was mobilised 42 times over the average, 13 over the standard deviation. Nelson, L94P1 has experienced only two incidents over the expected average. It is hard to identify any other stations/appliances which have experienced an increase in mobilisations due to DRM at Burnley.

Fiscal Year

Quarter 

L90P1

L90P2

L92P1

L94P1

2018-2019

Q2

202

322

73

259

2019-2020

Q2

184

377

67

220

2020-2021

Q2

145

318

65

228

2021-2022

Q2

182

327

53

293

2022-2023

Q2

230

427

66

297

2023-2024

Q2

154

313

42

253

2024-2025

Q2

195

348

36

237

2025-2026

Q2

227

278

54

257

 

Avg 2018/19-2024/25

185

347

57

255

Std Dev 2018/19-2024/25

27

38

13

28

Deviation 2025/26

42

-69

-3

2

 

Burnley Area Q2 Comparison