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Eight new Retained Support Officers (RSOs) have begun work for Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service as part of a £330,000 investment by the county council.

During their first week on duty the new officers ensured a fire engine in Holt had a full crew and was able to tackle a house fire in the town within seven minutes of the 999 call. The next nearest fire engine was 15 minutes away in Sheringham.

The move follows a major review into fire cover in rural areas carried out by the fire and rescue service in Norfolk in 2008.  The Rural Services Review looked at how the changing nature of employment and in rural areas was impacting on the availability of Retained fire fighters, firefighters who live and/or work locally and respond when needed. The review found that fewer and fewer employers are based within five minutes of some of the county's rural fire stations, leading to a lack of fire cover during the working day in some areas.

One of the main recommendations to come out of the review was the creation of a number of new Retained Support Officer posts.

Chief Fire Officer for Norfolk, Richard Elliott, said: "The idea behind the introduction of the RSO posts was to create a team of competent frontline fire officers who are available to work at various rural locations around the county and provide fire cover where and when it is needed. This gives us the flexibility to keep more fire engines on the run more of the time, especially in those rural areas where cover can be a problem during certain parts of the working day.

Now, if we know we will be a firefighter short in Downham Market on a Monday and Holt on a Tuesday an RSO can work from that station and put that fire engine 'on the run'. When not at incidents the RSOs will also help our rural stations in other ways including with recruitment, training, risk assessments, arson reduction etc. "

Mr Elliott said the model had proved very successful in Shropshire where they faced similar issues with providing fire cover at in rural areas at specific times.

Harry Humphrey, Cabinet Member for Fire and Community Protection, said: "The deployment of the RSOs is an innovative move by Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service and represents a major investment by Norfolk County Council. We are committed to making norfolk even safer and the example from Holt shows that investment is already paying off. The fact the Holt crew was available meant a quicker response and on this occasion less damage to someone's property."

The RSOs are based at four ‘home’ or ‘base’ stations; Fakenham, Downham Market, North Walsham and Hethersett. Each RSO has been given a distinctive van carrying fire safety messages and aligned to four/five Retained fire stations. They will be deployed, certainly initially, to those areas with current low availability in terms of fire cover.

RSO 1: Steve Keen – based at Fakenham (Kings Lynn, Sandringham, Massingham, Heacham, Hunstanton)
RSO 2: Ryan Hastings – based at Fakenham (Fakenham, Wells, Sheringham, Holt and Reepham)
RSO 3: Steve Collins – based at Downham Market (Methwold, Downham Market, Outwell, West Walton and Terrington St Clement)
RSO 4: Mark Richardson – based at Downham Market (East Harling, Thetford, Watton, Swaffham)
RSO 5: Gary Thorpe – based at North Walsham (Mundesley, Cromer, Aylsham, Wroxham, North Walsham)
RSO 6: Shaun Hearn – based at North Walsham (Great Yarmouth, Stalham, Martham, Acle, Gorleston)
RSO 7: Karl Hain – based at Hethersett (Attleborough, Dereham, Hingham, Wymondham, North Earlham)
RSO 8: Mark Wilson – based at Hethersett (Loddon, Harleston, Diss, Hethersett, Long Stratton).

For further information about becoming a Retained firefighter and the work of Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service visit our 'becoming a firefighter' pages 

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