Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service

Until the Second World War, local towns had their own fire services. In 1941, these were combined into the National Fire Service. The Fire Services Act 1947 disbanded the National Fire Service and created county-level fire services. Hampshire Fire Brigade was formed on 4 April 1948. Many meetings and discussions were held prior to the service's creation in 1948 by the Hampshire fire service committees, to discuss who would be appointed the role of chief fire officer and how the service would be structured.

With ongoing expansion, the service was under increasing pressure to open a service HQ. The FRS was originally hoping to use and acquire North Hill House in Winchester for usage as the headquarters – a building still desired by the Admiralty at the time and therefore the service was not allowed to buy it. In May 1948; the admiralty gave up the premises and allowed the service to operate it. However twenty years later in 1968, the service HQ moved to a floor of Ashburton Court, The Castle, Winchester as well as the control room.

In 1974, the service absorbed the Southampton and Portsmouth fire services and changed its name to Hampshire Fire Service.

In 1997, responsibility for the service was transferred from Hampshire County Council to the newly formed Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority.[3] Following the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, the service changed its name to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

HFRS are now headquartered in Eastleigh. Since late 2015, it has shared its headquarters with Hampshire Constabulary.[4]

Volvo fire engine on Town Quay

• Water Tender Ladder (WrL): P1
• Water Tender (WrT): P4
• Light Rescue Pump (LRP): P6
• Rescue Pump (RP): P7/P8
• Small Fires Vehicle (SFV): L1
• Water Carrier (WrC): W1/W3
• Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP): A1
• Incident Command Unit (ICU): C1
• Command Support Unit (CSU): C2
• Command Support Vehicle (CSV): C3
• Environmental Protection Unit (EPU): E1
• Light 4x4 Pump (L4P): M1
• Light 4x4 Tender (L4T): M2
• Heavy 4x4 Tender (H4T): M3
• Wildfire Unit (WFU): M4
• Response Support Vehicle (RSV): R1
• Water Rescue Unit (WRU): R2
• Animal Rescue Vehicle (ARV): R3
• Search & Rescue Unit (SRU): R4
• SRU Support: R5
• Maritime Incident Support Unit (MISU)
• Fire & Emergency Support Service unit (FESS): S5
• High Volume Pumping Unit (HVPU)
• Foam Response Unit: F1/F2
• Co-Responder Vehicle (CRV): V1

Hazmat Response:

• Detection, Identification & Monitoring (DIM): H8
• Mass Decontamination Unit (PM+MDU): H9

Urban Search & Rescue (USAR):

• Search & Rescue Dog Unit (SDU): R9
• Operational Support Unit (OSU): T1
• Prime Mover (PM)

Pods:

• Module 1 - Technical Search Equipment
• Module 2 - Heavy Transport, Confined Space & Hot Cutting
• Module 3 - Breaching & Breaking Equipment
• Module 4 - Multi Purpose Vehicle
• Module 5 - Shoring Operations

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service works in partnership with the South Central Ambulance Service to provide emergency medical cover to select areas of Hampshire. Currently, 21 areas have been identified as having a greater need for ambulance cover. Annually, the service attends over 13,000 medical emergencies supporting the ambulance service. The aim of a co-responder is to preserve life until the arrival of either a Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV) or an ambulance. Co-Responder Vehicles are single manned by a specially trained firefighter, who will take the vehicle to his or her workplace/home and will respond from there when alerted to an incident via pager. Each vehicle is equipped with:

• Defibrillator
• Bag and mask resuscitator
• Oxygen
• Airways
• Suction units
• Standard first aid equipment
• Entonox (analgesic gas)

In addition to co-responding, the service has also rolled out the Immediate Emergency Care (IEC) program which has resulted in all front line fire appliances being equipped with more advanced medical equipment. This includes a defibrillator, Entonox and patient monitoring equipment. As of October 2016, all appliances and front line crews had received the IEC training and equipment.

In 2015, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service carried out a risk review to determine how to reduce costs to match a £16m funding gap that would develop by 2020 due to funding cuts.[7] Following a public consultation in late 2015, the final proposals confirmed that none of the 51 fire stations in Hampshire would close and there would be no compulsory redundancies. Costs would be saved by reducing the number of operational firefighters at stations, including allowing some engines to respond to minor incidents with a smaller crew.[8]

The second major change was to introduce smaller engines at some stations. Until 2015, all Hampshire engines were a similar size and design.[9] The changes designated three types of fire engine: Enhanced Capability engines, which are similar in size to a traditional fire engine; Intermediate Capability appliances, which are slightly smaller; and First Response Capability appliances, which are much smaller.

in 2019, the service scrapped the idea for first response capability appliance due to weight distribution and performance issues, instead would be getting 49 intermediate capability appliances and 24 enhanced capability appliances. (73 new appliances in total)

3S fire is wholly owned by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority with 100% of all profits being returned to the Authority to assist with running the Fire and Rescue Service.

• Fire service in the United Kingdom
• Fire engine
• Fire apparatus
• FiReControl
• List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

• Official website