Agenda item

This report included information for the 2 Unitary and 12 District Authorities relating to Fire Safety Initiatives and Fires and Incidents of particular interest.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer introduced:

·        Caroline Hooson and Louise Rainford, Youth Engagement Co-ordinators who gave a presentation on the Prince’s Trust programme.  The programme enabled those aged16-25 to develop confidence, motivation and skills through a 12-week course.  The course content included relevant key issues such as: education on knife crime, safeguarding and health & wellbeing (ie: the delivery of the wasted lives young driver education programme).  Details of: funding, structure and the areas from which the Service delivered the programme were presented.  It was noted that people who were referred onto the programme included those who were educationally disengaged, homeless or had offending behaviour, substance misuse or mental health needs. 

LFRS had been a delivery partner since 2001 and during that time had delivered fire safety education directly to 6,000 people. Outcomes were measured both in terms of hard outcomes (people who successfully achieved further qualifications) and softer outcomes (people who were better able to deal with the future challenges they faced). A number of case study examples of positive multi-agency working were presented.

The Authority congratulated all Prince’s Trust staff for their hard work and dedication.  Members who had not yet attended a Prince’s Trust presentation were urged to do so; particularly as the presentations given by the young people on the programme at the end of the 12 weeks told of their inspirational and heartfelt experiences.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer then introduced:

·        Lee Cook and Lee Garnett, Incident Intelligence Officers who gave a presentation on the benefits of the use of the drone at incidents.  It was noted that LFRS had six Incident Intelligence Officers providing 24-hour cover to support any significant fire investigation and all were trained (and appropriately licensed) to pilot the drone which was of a high specification (this included the ability for authorised remote access to live footage). 

In addition to major incidents, the drone was mobilised to leaking pipelines, collapsed structures, explosions and rescues from various types of incident including assisting the Police with wide-area searches for missing persons.  It was also noted that should the drone be used out of the county, a second drone was used with resilience arrangements provided through collaboration with Lancashire Police and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

Members were advised that the drone would be on route to an incident at the same time as the fire engine and that over 2000 flights (for both drones) had been completed since September 2016 of which 350 incidents had been attended this year.  Footage from various incidents was shown to demonstrate the benefit of access to the footage from the incident ground.  The drone supported incidents by:

o   Clearly showing the extent of the fire spread;

o   Aiding the positioning of fire breaks;

o   Highlighting the use of compartmentation;

o   The use of thermal imagery;

o   Assisting in planning wide-area searches;

o   Vital in investigation and evidence collation;

o   Providing information to other agencies; and

o   Improving firefighter safety.

The Authority congratulated the team for the work undertaken to support the safety of the people in Lancashire.

Members then considered the community fire safety reports by area.

RESOLVED: -  That the Authority noted and endorsed the report.