To receive a presentation from Group Manager, Andrew Stockwell, on the work of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
RECOMMENDATION: To note the presentation from Group Manager, Andrew Stockwell, on the work of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Minutes:
Council received a presentation from Andy Stockwell, Group Manager, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The presentation covered the following points:
Following the presentation, Members asked the questions set out below:
Councillor Andrew Mickleburgh
Question:
I understand that electric vehicle car fires are far less commonplace than internal combustion engine vehicle fires. What statistics do you have on this, what are the risks and consequences of lithium car batteries catching fire and what specific measures are in place to respond should a major incident happen involving such fires?
Answer:
I do not have the statistics at the moment in time, but I can go away and get that information for you. Lithium ion batteries are a cause of concern for us in electric vehicles. They are not just in electric vehicles, they are in e-scooters, in bikes and even in vapes as well. So, they are on the trend up in terms of risk and at some point, yes we have combustible vehicle fires that are more frequent, but as more electric vehicles are being bought and come into play that obviously is going to rise as well. We do prevention awareness when we do our prevention activities. When our teams are going out, doing our safe and wells we talk about lithium ion batteries, when to charge them and how to charge them appropriately, and what to do in the event of a fire. We train our crews on lithium ion batteries in terms of how we can respond to these appropriately, and we work with the National Fire Chiefs Council because we are aware that it is a sector wide problem, and there is some guidance that needs to be developed around that as well.
Councillor Pauline Jorgensen
Question:
A couple of years ago the Chief Fire Officer said that you were going to do some work to try and reduce the stress on the Ambulance Service when required. I am just wondering how that had gone, or whether it is still happening?
Answer:
I do not know the specifics of that and maybe I need to go away and look into that for you. We have enhanced the training of our crews, so we are governed by SCAS to deliver a higher level of service in terms of first aid, which means we are able to support patients in casualty care before the Ambulance Service get there. We have enhanced our training for all our crews which means we are able to deliver a higher response to members of the public.
Councillor Prue Bray
Question:
There have been a number of fires caused by faulty vapes and disposal of vapes. What advice do you have on how to prevent such fires, and what can we as a Council do to help you get that advice out to people?
Answer:
So, in terms of advice my advice is do not charge them in sleeping areas, do not charge them at night when people are asleep. We need to be making sure that members of the public and the community are using appropriate chargers to charge these devices, and not something they bought online. I think as Councillors and Members if you become aware of areas and problem areas, raising it to us so we can go out and give some prevention activity and really target that in specific areas if you become aware of it.
Councillor Bill Soane
Question:
Now that Highways England has completed the work to upgrade the M4 to what is called a smart motorway, what effect has this had on the safety of fire crews and how the service is able to respond to emergencies?
Answer:
I think I would need to take that question away in terms of if there is any statistical data to show response times in those areas. I could not really comment at that moment in time. If you are happy for me to take that question away and I will look into that for you a bit further.
Councillor Bill Soane
Question:
Are you in contact with the Government and Highways England on issues such as safety on these roads?
Answer:
So, we work with local partners, we work with Highways England and if we come across any issues in that area, we will obviously raise that in partnership with them and discuss the issues.
Councillor Rachelle Shepherd Dubey
Question:
Are you going out to schools and universities to explain to them how to safely charge all the electronic gear they have including bikes and scooters?
Answer:
We target Year 5s and Year 7s and that is specifically about water and road safety because we use instant data to determine what the risk is. Obviously, as a lithium ion batteries start to rise and the incidents and trends start to rise, then we will tailor our prevention activity to meet that. Currently at the moment we do not deliver any prevention activity to universities.
Councillor Paul Fishwick
Question:
Last week there was a car fire at Luton Airport that had devastating consequences. How many vehicle fires occur each year on average within Berkshire?
Answer:
I would have to go away and get that information for you in terms of how many we get in a year. I do not have that data at the moment, apologies.
Councillor Sam Akhtar
Question:
My question was in regard to cladding. Many years ago, in London there was the unfortunate incident and there have been others across London. Do you know as a Borough has that been looked at in terms of the risk, and what mitigations have been done to stop this from happening in our Borough?
Answer:
As a Borough in terms of those high rise high risk residential buildings, the risk within Wokingham Borough is quite low because we have a low building stock in terms of buildings who have got that cladding. I can say that across the service we have done a project on all our high risk high rise buildings, and that continues in our business as usual work now. So, we have been out identifying these buildings, we have worked with responsible people, we have done audits where we have needed to, we have put enforcement on where we have needed to. That work will continue as one of our high risks. We are aware that high residential buildings are a risk across the service.
Councillor Peter Harper
Question:
As part of our Climate Emergency Action Plan, we are trying to reduce emissions from vehicles across the Borough. What work is the Fire Brigade doing to look at zero emissions vehicles as part of their fleet?
Answer:
It is part of our Strategic Assessment Framework. We are upgrading our power infrastructure to support EV charging and to further support longevities on our site. We are going out and fitting charging points for EV vehicles for the long term future. [re electric vehicles] I would have to go away and ask. I am not sure that that is part of the plan at the moment, maybe longer term but I would need to go and check that for you.
Councillor Stephen Conway thanked Andy Stockwell and his colleagues for the service that they provided the Borough.
RESOLVED That the presentation be noted and that Andy Stockwell be thanked for attending the meeting to give the presentation and answer Member questions.