FOI release

Minimum staffing , watch room and Pay

Case reference FOI2025/00191

Received 26 February 2025

Published 27 March 2025

Request

My foi is about minimum crewing and pay and watch room 1) at a 1 pump ladder station with no other appliances a watch of 1 sub officer/ 1 lead fire fighter compared/ 5 fire fighters is the standard. I wouldlike to know what levels these numbers can drop to before reserves are bought in from other stations for example the above levels can drop to either 1 sub officer or 1 lead firefighter and 4 firefighters . 2) using the above example of a one pump ladder station and no other appliances say for example there is 1 sub officer / 1 lead fire fighter/ 3 firefighters on duty would both the sub officer and the lead firefighter both ride the pump ladder with the 3 firefighters instead of taking the pump ladder off the run? A pump ladder at a 1 pump station must be manned with 5 crew at all times 3) does a fire stations watchroom office need to be manned 24/7 by a crew member and What are the duties of the watchroom crew member? 4) for the station commander role ; - how many hours a day do they work including breaks - are their hours set eg 9-18 -how many days a week do they work - how are their on call rota cover days and hours worked out which would cover being on call for major incidences such as a pump 5 or 6 fire. - how are their salary broken down eg do they get a set base salary and a off call top up if so how is the off call top up worked out eg 30% of what the base salary is 5). Will a station commander ever ride inside a pump ladder, pump, turnable aerial ladder, fire rescue unit, operation support unit if the station are short staffed in order to prevent one of the primary appliance’s above being taken off the run. This is to say that all other options have been exhausted eg voluntary overtime, no spare crew from other stations straight away etc. 6) what is the maximum amount of overtime a firefighter is allowed to carry out per week and on a shift he is already working on as one of his set shifts.

Response

Please see the response in the link below.

Documents

• FOIA response for disclosure log - FOI2025_00191 RESPONSE.pdf (75.9 KB)

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