46 | ESTCOLLABORATION
Fire and the environment: a natural partnership Fire and rescue services attend a wide range of incidents every day. Their work has an impact on the safety of the public, firefighters and the environment. It is important that incidents are managed with a careful eye to all three in order to secure the best outcomes. Words: Catherine Levin. It’s certainly the case that through carefully considered, risk-based operational response, command of incidents and environmental protection factors, fire and rescue services are able to provide high quality services to the public. Assisted by the National Operational Guidance Programme, fire and rescue services now have recourse to nationally developed, best practice guidance to underpin those local, risk-based approaches. At any incident, the highest priority for fire and rescue services is always the safety of the public and firefighters. In addition, fire and rescue services are also looking at potential damage to the environment of the incident itself or their own actions. Effective and informed action by responders can reduce the environmental impact of incidents and protect public safety. There has long been a need for fire and rescue services to consider the impact of their actions on the environment. While the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 does not include any specific requirement to protect the environment, other legislation does and those obligations can be broadly captured in five areas: • Water quality • Sewage systems • Land and soil • Waste • Nature conservation In June 2014, the Environment Agency in partnership with DCLG published a revised 200-page Environmental Protection Handbook for the fire and rescue service. Originally published in 2008, and dedicated to the protection of the environment, the revision came about due to changes in legislation, new and updated policies and procedures and developing risks to the environment.
“Effective and informed action by responders can reduce the environmental impact of incidents and protect public safety.” Peter Holland CBE, Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser, notes in his introduction to the handbook that ‘there is clear evidence that the fire and rescue service can, and do, make a significant contribution in protecting our environment and that as a consequence of our actions, significant harm to the natural environment has been prevented or mitigated’. David Jordan (formerly of the Environment Agency) goes on to note that ‘it will provide all firefighters with the essential knowledge required to understand how their actions both individually and collectively can safeguard the environment, whilst at the same time
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If foam is used instead of water alone the pollution risk can be increased, as fire fighting foam is itself polluting. Photo: iStockphoto
undertaking their principal role of saving life’. The handbook is designed to contribute to the partnership approach adopted by the UK environment agencies and the fire and rescue service. Its aim is to protect the environment at operational incidents, during training events and as part of an overall approach to managing day-to-day business both on fire and rescue service premises and in the wider community.
Environmental Protection guidance The National Operational Guidance Programme has looked at the content of the handbook and re-worked it to produce Environmental Protection guidance so that it is consistent with the approach taken for all other areas of guidance. It has done so using the approach of hazard and control statements. The handbook is still available as it provides additional detail to support the guidance that fire and rescue services can use at a local level. They are entirely complementary. For example, in the Environmental Protection guidance there is detailed information on some specific hazards. This includes contaminated firewater that can enter drainage systems and transport pollutants into rivers, lakes and groundwater. If foam is used instead of water alone the pollution risk can be increased, as fire fighting foam is itself polluting. For each hazard, the guidance provides a series of control measures. In the case of firewater this could include blocking drains and using temporary storage areas. In June 2014, the guidance was written with the policy writer in mind. This meant that those responsible in each fire and rescue service could review the guidance and consider how to incorporate, adapt or entirely adopt the
guidance into local policies and procedures. More recently, in February 2016, the guidance was updated to include strategic actions and tactical actions.
Risk assessment A key change to the guidance published in 2016 is the creation of the complementary National Environmental Risk Assessment. This document is the result of work by Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, the Environment Agency and the National Operational Guidance Programme. Previously, hazards to the environment were assessed in a different way by individual fire and rescue services. With different methods being used, there was an inconsistent approach to determining what control measures to adopt when considering hazards at incidents. The objective of the group’s work was to create a simple, easy to use risk assessment to be used by fire and rescue services. With all fire and rescue services using the same form, taking the same approach to looking at environmental risk assessment, not only is the approach consistent but also the exchange of information with Environment Agency staff is improved. This is important where information gathering is time critical to ensure minimal damage and effective mitigation. Like all National Operational Guidance, there is no mandate to use the National Environmental Risk Assessment form but it’s clear there are advantages to doing so. Not least the reassurance that using the approach encapsulated in this form helps responders comply with regulations associated with environmental damage.
April2016
ESTCOLLABORATION | 47 It’s early days for the new approach to risk assessment and there is no data available to determine take up or use of the form at incidents. It is noteworthy that while the Environment Agency record incidents reported to them by the fire and rescue service on their own National Incident Recording System, there is no work planned to incorporate the data in these forms into returns to Government for the equivalent fire Incident Recording System. There is a danger that fire and rescue services will gather and record valuable data about risk assessment for incident response and it is never seen beyond the
local organisation. Gaining a national view on such data over time can provide an insight into how fire and rescue services are approaching environmental considerations and how these change over time. This is certainly something for policy makers at a national level to consider. Bruce McGlashan, Senior Advisor for the Environment Agency was Project Executive for the production of the Environmental Protection guidance. He says that the approach taken with the guidance and the risk assessment process demonstrates the ‘strong, enduring and continually developing relationship between the fire and rescue service and environment agencies’.
It is testament to the nature of this partnership that Bruce is the only Project Executive to come from outside the fire and rescue service. Indeed the partnership between the Environment Agency and the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) was recognised in 2015 with the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations. The partnership between fire and the environment is a strong one and will continue long into the future.
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With all fire and rescue services using the same form, taking the same approach to looking at environmental risk assessment, not only is the approach consistent but also the exchange of information with Environment Agency staff is improved.
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April2016