Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service’s manage in charge of operational response has praised the work of the Control room operators during the weekend’s industrial action.

Maintaining fire cover across the county when there are limited resources is a challenge, and it falls to the Control room to make sure appliances are located in the right places at all times.

 Julian Parsons said: “During the strike on Friday night, we had a small house fire in Purton. When the 999 call was first made by a neighbour, the occupant was still in the property.

Control Firefighter Chris Lee kept the neighbour on the phone, talked him through how to persuade the occupant to leave, and also gained valuable information about the fire. The whole Blue Watch Control team showed great professionalism in maintaining the information flow, and that definitely contributed to the occupant being removed from the house both quickly and safely.”


On the Saturday night, there was a significant fire involving a thatched property in the hamlet of Fyfield, near Pewsey. In the initial stages of the fire, half of the Service’s 16 available appliances were sent to the scene, and the remaining fire engines were moved around to ensure fire cover elsewhere in the county.

AM Parsons said: “Thatch fires are always challenging for the Control room, even without the additional pressures of industrial action. White Watch at time of call and then Green Watch throughout the evening maintained all of the informatives through an extraordinarily busy period and this undoubtedly had a positive impact on how we managed the incident.”