Chief's Message

By Peter Dartford MA MEng(Hons) MIFireE

May I take this opportunity to welcome you to the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service website and say how pleased I am that you have chosen to visit our site. As you will see from the site content list there are numerous options available to you, all of which allow you to explore the work of the Fire and Rescue Service in Staffordshire.

Clearly, I hope that the time spent on our Website will allow you an insight into the work and organisation of a modern Fire and Rescue Service.

Across the county, from Ipstones and Longnor in the north, to Wombourne and Kinver in the south, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service is at the heart of your community. Our priority is to make Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent a safer place in which to live and work. Why not visit the Community Fire Safety section where you will find information on how you can help to protect yourself, your family, your home and your business from fire.

The cornerstone of a modern and efficient Fire and Rescue Service is the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). A separate section on this plan which we call the Staffordshire Safety Plan will allow you to fully understand the way the Authority intend to develop and improve the Service into the future. The Safety Plan builds on what the Fire and Rescue Service already does well. Over the past 6 years the Service has increasingly taken responsibility to ensure that the communities are first and foremost, safe from fire through proactive prevention and protection activities. Over 170,000 homes in Staffordshire have been provided with a Home Fire Risk Check, including the fitting of high quality, smoke alarms where necessary. In addition, we provide a range of other equipment from deep fat fryers and electric blankets to fireguards which remove risks from the homes of those vulnerable to fires and other hazards.

By taking responsibility for making people safe, accidental fire deaths and injuries have reduced by 70%!  Making people safer at times of emergencies will however continue to require a professional and assured response to be made to fires, road traffic collisions, chemical spillages, etc. Since 9/11 and the terrorist attacks in the USA the Fire and Rescue Services in the UK have increasingly developed regional and national strategies to more efficiently respond to the threat from terrorism and the potential impact arising from climate events, eg major flooding. The Fire and Rescue Service will continue to work closely together to secure the highest levels of public safety and of course with other agencies to ensure Staffordshire is a safe and prosperous County.

It is my intention that Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service will continually improve our Electronic Service capability, thereby ensuring an interactive website with the public, our partners and the business community. With the active involvement through the Fire Gateway we intend to provide a range of interactive web based services to be delivered over the internet for citizens and businesses in Staffordshire. Each will be designed to provide key components for service delivery of Electronic Government, to meet expectations for the public to access services at any time from any location.

Clearly our key aim is one of continuous improvement of the Services we offer. If you have any comments or suggestions you would like to make, please make use of the Comments Section.

Thank you for taking the time to explore our website.

Peter Dartford
Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive