Two new fire engines will be deployed at Newbury Fire Station, following an official handover from the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority (RBFA).
The fire engines have been brought in following a joint procurement project between Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS), Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service, which delivered the first set of fire engines to the Thames Valley last year.
The new fire engines have been built by Emergency One (UK) Ltd on Volvo FL 42R chassis and will replace both of the existing fire engines based at Newbury. This is part of RBFRS’s programme to modernise its aging fleet with state of the art vehicles, designed for current needs and incorporating the latest technology.
They offer a range of improved capabilities for Newbury’s firefighters, including:
- Larger hose reels that enable water to be delivered more quickly to extinguish fires.
- Battery-powered rescue equipment, primarily for use at road traffic incidents. This is easier to carry and less bulky than hydraulic equipment, less hazardous and removes generator noise from rescue situations. The equipment is also much quicker to deploy, reducing the time to access and rescue people who are trapped and injured.
- Improved mobile lighting for better visibility at the scene of an incident.
- A more comfortable seating area for crews. This is especially important as firefighters are typically spending more time in the fire engine, completing prevention work such as Home Fire Safety Checks
On Friday, 31 August, Councillor Angus Ross, Royal Berkshire Fire Authority’s Lead Member for Strategic Assets, completed the official handover by handing over the keys to Newbury firefighters, alongside Newbury MP Richard Benyon and Chief Fire Officer, Trevor Ferguson.
Councillor Ross said: “I am delighted that Newbury Fire Station will be home to two of the new fire engines, following their successful introduction at four other stations last year.”
“Credit must go to the team that ran this joint project with our colleagues in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. They have delivered a modern, fit-for-purpose fire engine that complements our existing fleet and now allows us to deliver an improved service for the communities supported from the Newbury station.”
Luke Coleman, Station Manager at Newbury Fire Station said: “The arrival of new fire engines at Newbury is definitely positive for the local community.”
“It equips our firefighters with more modern equipment to deal with a range of scenarios that they may be confronted with on a daily basis, and also improves the way we work with our Oxfordshire colleagues at the scene of incidents as we are all working with the same specification and layout of vehicles.”
Photos from the official handover are available upon request.