Cumbria Floods Request ACTIVE Support

ACTIVE Supports Cumbria Floods Contingency Planning

Fire and Rescue Service chiefs in Cumbria have enlisted the help of community and contingency safety specialists to keep flood-affected communities safe in the aftermath of bridge closures.

Four days after the floods, the service contacted ACTIVE Solutions Europe Ltd to implement contingency plans in response to the collapse of Northside Bridge and closure of Calva Bridge in Workington.

ACTIVE and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service ran two scenarios for deployment of firefighters based on data they had collected nationwide from over 18,000 incidents during 2006, 2007 and 2008. Using this information the analysis then focused on key areas to measure the potential responsiveness and fire cover to deal with the bridge closures.

The immediate impact of the bridge closures was obvious but by using a programme designed by ACTIVE, potential shifts in workload were investigated to highlight the impact on the worst affected areas - Workington and Seaton.

Changing levels of risk were measured within Workington and Seaton along with the type of incidents which Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service would tackle and these results then fed into strategies into safeguarding these areas whilst the bridges are rebuilt or repaired.

John Moorcroft, Cumbria’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer, said “The work completed by ACTIVE has provided reassurance that we are able to maintain sufficient fire safety cover in the area.

The results give us detailed information to assist us in making key decisions. The main thing we wanted from this analysis was to have a robust evidence base to ensure that we understand how risk may change and what our community fire safety teams can do to make sure our communities in the affected areas are as safe as possible.”

Paul Smith, Managing Director of ACTIVE, said: “We commenced this work within hours of Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service contacting us. Our experts were able to define and deliver the analysis within a few days. As the worst hit areas of Cumbria recover from the havoc caused by the floods I hope that the information provided to Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service will contribute to the ongoing safety of residents in the area."