Responding to Emergencies

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service's response standards remain among the fastest in the country. They are set out as:

• We will attend any life risk emergency incident on Merseyside within 10 minutes of being requested.
• We will aim to achieve this on 90% of occasions

In addition to fighting fires and other emergencies, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service is helping to keep communities safe by working closely with police, health services, local authorities and other agencies to plan for major incidents such as train derailments, floods, chemical leaks and terrorist attacks.

Over the past decade a significant number of high profile emergency incidents have occurred both here in the UK and abroad. These have driven the Government to review the UK's ability to respond and deal with similar types of events. The outcome of this review was used to create legislation which stated that a high degree of emergency planning at a national, regional and local level was required.

Large scale emergency incidents have also increased in the UK. This has been due to climate change and terrorist activities. As a direct result of this the Government introduced the ‘National Resilience’ project. Through the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) specific fire and rescue services were given vehicles, equipment and training to establish a standardised national response to large scale emergency incidents. The resources and equipment help us tackle a variety of different incidents such as dealing with hazardous materials, large-scale flooding and building collapses.