Members of the public are being urged to share their views on proposals from Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service that will change the way it measures its response times.
A public consultation has been launched for people to comment on the new standards of response. This is the target response time that the Service sets itself to get firefighters to incidents.
The new response times propose that crews attend dwelling fires where there is a risk to life one minute quicker than the current response time, while taking longer to attend calls for non-life-threatening incidents.
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service currently sets itself a single standard of response to attend all incidents within an average of 10 minutes after receiving the first 999 call to its Fire Control room.
The new standards of response have been proposed as the following:
- The Service will attend all primary dwelling fires – fires at residential premises involving a high risk of threat to life – within 9 minutes. This is one minute quicker than the current single response standard.
- Attend all Road Traffic Collisions with a risk to life within 12 minutes.
- Attend all other emergencies – such as fires (other than primary dwelling fires), rescues from height or water, and incidents involving hazardous materials – within 12 minutes.
- We will mobilise to all other calls for service within 60 minutes. These are for non-life-threatening incidents and will not always result in a blue-light response.
Response times depend on several factors, such as where the incident happens, the location of the nearest fire engine, traffic, and weather conditions.
The standards of response are based on risk levels and the resources that we have available across the county – which have been identified for the coming five years in our Community Risk Management Plan for 2025-30.
Other proposed changes include changing the calculation of the average response times to align with other emergency services, and for the clock to stop once the first fire resource reaches the incident – even if this may be a dedicated fire officer or specialist appliance instead of a fire engine.
Chief Fire Officer Nikki Watson said: “It’s important that members of the public share their views on our proposals. We firmly believe they will help contribute to keeping our communities safe.
“This will not impact how long it takes for a fire engine to arrive at an incident. Our crews will continue to reach incidents as quickly and safely as they can.
“Updated standards of response will provide us with a more accurate and reliable picture of our performance and the service that we offer.
“We are proposing to change the way the average response times are calculated to mirror the approach used by our blue light colleagues in police and ambulance. This will only enhance the strong partnership we share with both services.
“Having targets in place that have been shaped by data-led evidence will allow us to benchmark against other Services both regionally and nationally – and will help us to deliver an exceptional fire and rescue service for all our residents.”
The full proposals form part of the six-week public consultation that is running on the draft Community Risk Management Plan.
A link to the draft CRMP document can be accessed here: https://www.northantsfire.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/NFRSCRMP-DRAFT-APRIL25-V0.5-FINAL.pdf
The consultation period starts on April 9 and finishes on May 21. You can share your views on the proposals by filling in the survey at https://www.research.net/r/VQBKPZ8
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