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 over daily 24hr period. 9

Financial Impact 10

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 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’s 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 1 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 two 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

Appliance	DRM	Jul-25	Aug-25	Sep-25	Oct-25	Nov-25	Dec-25
Blackpool	57	11	14	8	4	10	10
Preston	57	6	20	7	9	5	10
Blackburn	52	6	8	7	13	8	10
Burnley	42	3	11	9	11	5	3

Total	208	26	53	31	37	28	33

Engine	# DRM		% DRM
Engine	Q2	Q3	% DRM
Blackpool	33	24	15%
Preston	33	24	15%
Blackburn	21	31	14%
Burnley	23	19	11%
Total	110	98	14%

*Data from 01/07/25 – 31/12/2025

12. DRM has been used a total of 208 times in Q2 (July – September) and Q3 (October – December). 208 occasions out of a total of 1472 available shifts across the four stations in that timeframe, representing DRM being enacted on 14% 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:

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, 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 improved by 8 seconds, whereas response times across all stations over the same period have increased by 9 seconds. Whilst DRM cannot be attributed to the improved response times, it does highlight that DRM has not had detrimental impacts on response times and public safety.

DRM Stations
Risk	Target (Mins)	2024/25						2025/26							Previous Year to Date		Year to Date
		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs	mm:ss	Incs	mm:ss	Incs
L	12	07:41	20	07:57	16	06:33	9		07:07	11	07:58	12	07:10	14	07:33	45	07:25	37
M	10	06:23	51	06:03	44	06:20	61		05:46	45	06:10	46	06:08	39	06:16	156	06:01	130
H	8	06:13	11	05:39	9	05:45	17		05:21	14	06:44	14	05:34	19	05:52	37	05:51	47
VH	6	05:36	6	05:38	7	05:50	9		05:50	11	04:35	5	05:48	9	05:42	22	05:34	25
Overall		06:36	88	06:22	76	06:12	96		05:53	81	06:34	77	06:18	81	06:23	260	06:15	239
Blackburn Station
Risk	Target (Mins)	2024/25						2025/26							Previous Year to Date		Year to Date
		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs	mm:ss	Incs	mm:ss	Incs
L	12	10:21	4	09:29	3	05:31	1		07:12	3	08:43	6	10:08	3	09:25	8	08:41	12
M	10	06:36	16	06:32	13	06:19	24		06:46	12	06:20	21	05:53	18	06:27	53	06:17	51
H	8	05:49	3	05:55	2	06:51	2		03:38	1	05:11	2	05:00	3	06:08	7	04:50	6
VH	6	-	0	-	0	05:11	1		-	0	-	0	-	0	05:11	1	-	0
Overall		07:09	23	06:57	18	06:17	28		06:39	16	07:03	29	06:51	24	06:45	69	06:34	69

Blackpool Station
Risk	Target (Mins)	2024/25						2025/26							Previous Year to Date		Year to Date
		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs		Q1	Incs	Q2	Incs	Q3	Incs	mm:ss	Incs	mm:ss	Incs
L	12	07:16	8	08:13	7	06:26	4		04:03	1	07:26	4	07:19	2	07:27	19	06:55	7
M	10	05:46	11	07:48	6	05:26	9		05:07	19	05:38	8	04:16	2	06:07	26	05:12	29
H	8	05:20	6	05:38	4	05:07	7		07:07	1	05:30	3	-	0	05:19	17	05:54	4
VH	6	05:26	4	05:31	3	05:51	4		05:19	8	04:35	5	05:27	8	05:37	11	05:11	21
Overall		06:03	29	07:10	20	05:35	24		05:12	29	05:42	20	05:34	12	06:12	73	05:26	61

Burnley Station
Risk	Target (Mins)		2024/25											2025/26												Previous Year to Date				Year to Date
			Q1	Incs			Q2	Incs		Q3			Incs	Q1		Incs		Q2		Incs		Q3		Incs		mm:ss		Incs		mm:ss			Incs
L	12		04:56	3			08:30	2		06:56			2	08:58		4		-		0		06:18		6		06:31		7		07:22			10
M	10		06:16	15			04:48	15		05:47			10	05:37		5		06:03		10		06:50		9		05:36		40		06:15			24
H	8		-	0			05:28	1		05:30			2	05:10		7		06:56		4		05:28		10		05:29		3		05:39			21
VH	6		03:09	1			04:00	2		03:54			1	-		0		-		0		-		0		03:46		4		-			0
Overall			05:53	19			05:08	20		05:47			15	06:15		16		06:18		14		06:09		25		05:35		54		06:13			55

Preston Station
Risk	Target (Mins)	2024/25													2025/26												Previous Year to Date				Year to Date
		Q1			Incs	Q2			Incs		Q3	Incs			Q1		Incs		Q2		Incs		Q3		Incs		mm:ss		Incs		mm:ss	Incs
L	12	07:51			5	06:02			4		06:54	2			05:34		3		06:49		2		05:51		3		07:01		11		05:59	8
M	10	06:57			9	06:16			10		07:08	18			05:52		9		06:26		7		06:22		10		06:51		37		06:13	26
H	8	09:29			2	05:29			2		06:12	6			05:37		5		07:56		5		06:02		6		06:43		10		06:30	16
VH	6	08:40			1	07:25			2		06:41	3			07:14		3		-		0		08:34		1		07:15		6		07:34	4
Overall		07:37			17	06:16			18		06:52	29			05:58		20		07:01		14		06:18		20		06:54		64		06:22	54

Incidents in Very High Risk (VH) Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in the Preston station area have not met the specified response standard in the previous year to date, or the current year to date. There has only been one critical fire in a VH risk LSOA in Preston area since the introduction of DRM. DRM was in place when the incident occurred, but a standby appliance from Bamber Bridge was available on station at Preston and responded. Analysis of the response times shows that travel time and extended call handling times were the main cause behind a delayed response. The low numbers of incidents, six in 2024/25 and four in 2025/26 mean that a single slower response will have an exaggerated impact on the average figure. When reporting all stations performance, this impact is reduced and the overall response time is within the prescribed standard (six minutes).

All LFRS Stations

Risk

Target

(Mins)

2024/25

2025/26

Previous Year to Date

Year to Date

Incs

mm:ss

Incs

mm:ss

Incs