Councillor David Schofield, centre, is pictured with Amersham's retained crew and Station Manager Tony Thompson, fifth from the right, Group Manager Mick Martin, far left, and Area Manager Denis O'Driscoll, far right.

31 January 2012

Amersham’s on-call firefighters have received official congratulations after exceeding a significant performance target.

One of the town’s two fire engines is crewed by full-time firefighters who work in shifts, called watches, at Amersham Fire Station in Woodside Road.

The other is run by retained firefighters, who are paged to come to the station from home or work in an emergency. Their target is to keep the fire engine available to respond to 999 calls at least 95 per cent of the time.

In the year from April 2010 to the end of March 2011, they achieved 95.75 per cent availability.

Watch Manager Paul Lillycrop and his crew were presented with a framed letter this evening by Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority member Councillor David Schofield congratulating them on their achievement.

Area Manager Denis O’Driscoll, Head of Service Delivery, Buckinghamshire, said: “Retained firefighters are a very important part of our establishment, training during evenings and weekends to ensure they are prepared for any emergency they are called to.

“I would like to thank their families and friends too, as this would not have been achievable without them. They are the ones who hold things together and carry on as usual when the crew have to rush out in response to an emergency call.

“This is also a celebration of the support and flexibility provided by local employers in releasing their staff to support a vital community function.”

Both crews were called into action later in the evening by what turned out to be a false alarm at Amersham Hospital.