Littlehampton firefighters make pledges to community

The town’s fire station was one of only two retained stations in West Sussex to be upgraded earlier this year to having full-time crews during the daytime, following a county-wide risk assessment which revealed Littlehampton needed better cover.

Watch commander at the station, Ian Paine, said: “We have an eight-minute window from when we first receive the call to when we have to be on the scene.

“During the day, we used to work on a retained basis, which meant that crews were not posted at the station during the day, but they had to be within a four-minute radius of it.

“Now with staff being here all day, we can react instantly. So obviously our response times will be better.”

Officers proved just how quickly they could react when a training session at the station, in Maltravers Road, turned into a live response, following reports that a light aircraft was thought to have crashed near Goodwood.

The station turned into a hive of activity, with crew members rushing to pull on their fire-proof overalls and sprinting to their fire engines.

Although the plane landed safely, the call-out proved just how quickly the crew could respond.

“We’re still ironing out some of the kinks, as with every large reshuffle,” said Ian. “However we proved just how effective a combined variable crew with the support of its dedicated, retained officers could be.

“But what is really exciting and important, is the shift we can provide from fire intervention to fire prevention.”

The crew is now involved with co-ordinating several community safety projects in Littlehampton, Bognor, East Preston and Angmering.

Firefighter Katie Robinson-Brown is already responsible for a fire awareness course at The Littlehampton Academy.

“We’re hoping to roll this course out across all the schools in Littlehampton and West Sussex.

“It teaches children the importance of fire safety, from an early age.

“The kids we have already spoken to are so switched on and really bright. They got behind the course 100 per cent and the information really stuck.

“This scheme is an essential part of our preventative measures that I look forward to expanding with the added time at the station.”

Crew members James Diston, Adam Mayers and crew commander Alan Blair will also be targeting key areas in Littlehampton and Wick in the coming months, offering house-to-house calls.

James said: “It’s about making the public more informed. The ultimate goal is to prevent fires before they happen.”

Crew members welcome visits and opinions from the public at the station, during the day.