Essex County Fire and Rescue Service are the statutory fire fighting service for the county of Essex in the south-east of England. Between January 1 and December 31 2005 the service attended a total of 24,291 emergency calls, mostly made up of fires and road traffic collisions.

ECFRS employs 1,792 people breaking down into 958 wholetime firefighters, 532 retained, 49 control operators and 253 support staff. It operates 52 fire stations spread throughout the county consisting of 18 Wholetime stations, located in the more densely populated centres, and 34 retained stations providing cover throughout the rest of the county.

Major risks covered by ECFRS include Stansted Airport, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Southend Airport, BP's oil refinery in Canvey Island and part of the M25 ring-road.

As well as attending fires and RTCs ECFRS provides emergency response to chemical spills and provides one of the country's Urban Search and Rescue Teams which is a team of officers with special training and equipment to conduct rescues from collapsed buildings and enclosed spaces, their resources include Darcy, the USAR dog, who has been trained to sniff out people trapped in rubble.

ECFRS Headquarters and Control are based in Hutton, Brentwood.

Organisation

ECFRS is divided into seven Community Commands. They are:

1. Basildon and Castle Point Community Command
2. Chelmsford and Maldon Community Command
3. Colchester and Tendering Community Command
4. Harlow and Epping Community Command
5. Southend and Rochford Community Command
6. Thurrock and Brentwood Community Command
7. Uttlesford and Braintree Community Command

ECFRS Chief Fire Officer is David Johnson

Emergency calls are taken by Control Operators, based in the Control Room at Service Headquarters in Hutton. The administrative centre for the service is also based at Service Headquarters.

There are training departments based in Chelmsford, Orsett, Witham and Wethersfield.

Service Workshops, where the service's fleet of vehicles are maintained, are based in Lexden, Colchester.

Appliances

ECFRS has the following appliances in operation

• 50 Rescue Pumps
• 23 Water Tenders
• 5 Aerial Ladder Platforms
• 4 Pinzgauers
• 4 Rescue Tenders
• 1 Mobile Control Unit
• 1 Incident Response Unit
• 1 Unimog
• 1 Hose Layer
• 1 Incident Response Unit

Urban Search and Rescue Team

Using state-of-the-art equipment, multi-purpose vehicles, a sniffer dog and purpose built base staffed with a highly trained and experienced team are the elements which have come together in Essex to create the County Fire Service’s new Urban Search and Rescue Team.

The team is equipped to deal with the incidents in which people have become trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings and major transport accidents. They will be able to safely go in and get those people out, or in the event of possible collapse will be ready to shore up unstable buildings so that firefighters can carry on working.

The USAR team are equipped with Prime Movers, specialist vehicles that can be loaded with one of five pods, depending on what situation the team are going to face. These pods include support, technical rescue and even a small multi-purpose vehicle which can get into tight spaces and move heavy loads.

But its not all high tech equipment, there is also the back to basics approach offered by Darcy the search dog, who has been trained to help sniff out people trapped.

Following the tragic and terrifying events of September 11, 2000, new risks were shown to the world, risks for which rescue services would need to be prepared and the government responded with the announcement that Urban Search and Rescue teams were to be established around the country and one of the first services they turned to was Essex, with its huge bank of knowledge gained from working in such a diverse environment.

Essex was chosen because it had 14 officers already trained in the art of urban rescue, officers which had used their skills in finding and rescuing people from the rubble of collapsed buildings and carrying out daring rescues underwater before. The 14 officers of the UK Fire Service Safety and Rescue Team in Essex will provide a hugely experienced knowledge base to help create the new team which is currently going through a rigorous recruitment process ahead of final selection.

The team were part of the rescue effort that was sent to Bam in Iran after it was hit by devastating earthquakes in December 2003 where they helped in the search for victims amongst the rubble which is all that was left of the ancient city

Plans for a new base have been given approval and £1.1million has been set aside for its construction.

Rudy Jackson, who is the USAR Manager, said: “We are working at the cutting edge and there is a real buzz around this, we can’t wait to get in our base and get started properly. This is a very exciting time for us, we are founding a new section and have been supplied with all the new equipment and our base is in the process of being built."

External links

• Official site

Fire and Rescue Services in the United Kingdom

England: Avon | Bedfordshire & Luton | Berkshire | Buckinghamshire | Cambridgeshire | Cheshire | Cleveland | Cornwall | County Durham & Darlington | Cumbria | Derbyshire | Devon |Dorset | East Sussex | Essex | Gloucestershire | Greater Manchester | Hampshire | Hereford and Worcester | Hertfordshire |Humberside | Isle of Wight | Kent | Lancashire | Leicestershire | Lincolnshire | London | Merseyside | Norfolk | Northamptonshire | Northumberland |North Yorkshire | Nottinghamshire | Oxfordshire | Shropshire | Somerset | South Yorkshire | Staffordshire | Suffolk | Surrey | Tyne and Wear | Warwickshire | West Midlands | West Sussex | West Yorkshire | Wiltshire Wales: Mid & West Wales | North Wales | South Wales Scotland: Central Scotland | Dumfries & Galloway | Fife | Grampian | Highlands & Islands | Lothian & Borders | Strathclyde | Tayside Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service A fire engine belonging to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service The fire service in the United Kingdom has undergone dramatic changes since the beginning of the 21st century, a process that has been propelled by a devolution of central government powers, new legislation and a change to operational... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Avon Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory FRS or Fire and Rescue Service covering the area of what used to be the County of Avon (1974-1996) but now consists of the four unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire in... Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) for the county of Bedfordshire and the unitary authority of Luton. ... The Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statuory fire and rescue service for the English non-metropolitan county of Cheshire and the unitary authorities of Halton (including Runcorn, and Widnes) and Warrington. ... The Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the county of Gloucestershire, England. ... The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is the county-wide emergency fire & rescue service for the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. ... The London Fire Brigade (LFB) provides fire fighting and rescue services in London, UK. It is the third largest fire department in the world with nearly 7000 staff. ... Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Is the fire service covering the county of Merseyside in north-west England and is the statutory firfighting and rescue service responsible for all 999 fire brigade calls in Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens, Liverpool and Wirral. ... The Somerset Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory FRS or Fire and Rescue Service covering the area of Somerset. ... The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statuory fire & rescue service for the County of Surrey, England, with 24 fire stations. ... View of a Tyne and Wear Volvo Fire Appliance. ... The West Midlands Fire Service is the body responsible for fire protection and rescue in the West Midlands county in England. ... The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is the county-wide, statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the Metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. ... The Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is the county-wide, statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. ... The Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service (previously Highland and Islands Fire Brigade) is the fire service for Northern Scotland, covering the council areas of Highland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles, and so covering a major part of the Highlands and Islands area. ... Location of NIFB districts The Northern Ireland Fire Brigade (NIFB) are the official fire fighters for Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. ...