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Responding to fires and
emergencies |
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 is the first significant
change in the law on the operation of the fire and rescue service
in over 50 years. When the previous Act was introduced in 1947 the
Service was expected to focus on fighting fires only, and the law
constrained what we could do. Since then the role of the Service
has changed a great deal.
As a result, under the new Act fire and rescue authorities now have
a range of statutory duties to:
- Promote fire safety;
- Prepare for fighting fires and protecting people and property
from fires;
- Rescuing people from road traffic collisions;
- Dealing with other specific emergencies, such as flooding or
terrorist attack, which are dictated by statute and can be amended
to reflect the changing role of the Service.
In addition, all fire and rescue authorities are able to do other
things to respond to the particular needs of their communities and
the risks they face. The Act achieves this through:
- Ensuring that fire and rescue authorities can do things that
are not specifically set out in the Act but which will help them
meet their statutory duties;
- Giving authorities powers to prepare properly for other risks
to life and the environment - for example we can buy equipment and
train and deploy staff to undertake activities that pose a risk to
life or the environment in our area;
- Allowing authorities, where they have capacity, to use staff
and equipment for any other purpose they believe
appropriate.
This new framework of powers and duties equips fire and rescue
authorities to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It puts
prevention on an equal footing with intervention and enables
individual fire and rescue authorities to decide, in consultation
with their communities, how and where to deploy their
resources.
The Act therefore provides a stronger basis for the Service to
respond to the range of risks set out in their Integrated Risk
Management Plans. The Act recognises the wider role the Service now
plays and provides the flexibility to adapt itself to meet
ever-changing demands.
We deliver our response to emergencies with highly skilled
front-line and support functions. We provide emergency services to
the communities of Suffolk and visitors to Suffolk 24 hours a day
seven days a week every week of the year.
We respond to over 10,000 calls for assistance a year and attend a
wide range of emergencies from fires in domestic housing and large
industrial accidents to rescuing people from road traffic
collisions and chemical incidents to responding to fires in ships
at sea and in Suffolk's ports.
After the Fire
Visits
Special Services
Emergency Response
Standards | | |