Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service are currently dealing with a number of storm related incidents across the county, mainly attending damaged buildings, fallen trees and other exterior structural issues. The increase in incidents is no more than we anticipated at this time and we are well resourced to attend and deal with results of the high wind. The Met Office have said that the peak wind for this region will last until around 3-3.30pm, we so are asking people to continue to follow advice which is being widely publicised on social media, TV and radio and in particular we are urging people to only drive if it is absolutely essential.

All agencies across the county are working well to support each other and ensure that we continue to keep Northamptonshire safe. We would like to thank colleagues from the Northamptonshire Emergency Planning Team, who are coordinating calls from people who require assistance, but do not need the emergency services. This is allowing us to attend hazardous incidents, that require immediate attention and could lead to issues affecting public safety.

18.02.2022 15.00

Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service is urging residents to remain cautious as Storm Eunice passes through both today and tomorrow.

The Met Office has currently issued an amber weather warning for Northamptonshire, which means the very strong winds could lead to flying debris, damage to buildings and roofs and power lines being brought down. There will also be falling branches and uprooted trees.

It could also mean roads, bridges and railways lines could close, with delays and cancellations to buses, trains and flights.

There is also a good chance that power cuts could occur and affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage.

So before heading out tomorrow, consider whether your journey is really necessary.

And if you do head out in the car, remember the following:

• Plan your journey carefully, checking weather and traffic reports
• Keep both hands on the steering wheel
• Always be ready for stronger winds and gusts on exposed stretches of road or when your passing high-sided vehicles or tall buildings in built up areas
• Keep your speed down as this will stop strong gusts of wind blowing you off course as much
• Leave extra room around cyclists and motorcyclists as they are particularly vulnerable to sudden gusts of wind and may veer across the road in to your path
• Keep more distance from other vehicles, especially high-sided vehicles and caravans
• Try to avoid towing trailers, caravans or horseboxes in very high winds
• Expect lower speed limits or temporary closures on roads due to fallen debris or accidents
• Small branches in the road could be a sign that there is a tree or large branch fallen further along the road or round the bend

Chief Fire Officer Darren Dovey of Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has announced his intention to retire later this year after 35 years in the fire service.

Darren has been at the helm of Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service since April 2016 and delayed his planned retirement twice – firstly to manage the transfer of the governance of the fire service to Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold and then again in 2020 to lead the service through the pandemic.

Darren will leave in October and has announced his intentions as early as possible to give the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner time to recruit a new Chief Fire Officer and to support that process.

Of his time with Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, Darren Dovey said: “It has been an absolute privilege to lead Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service through some very difficult times with the old county council and to steer the work that has given the Service stability from which to ensure it is fit to face the challenges of keeping the community safe in the future.

“I feel very fortunate to have spent my career doing something that I love and which is so strongly supported by the public.  Keeping people safe is a vocation and it’s been a very rewarding role.

“I am very grateful to have worked with people over the years who share that passion to serve their community and I am confident that I will leave Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service in a strong position to take the next steps it needs to take.

“I’ll be working hard over the coming months to help embed the progress that has been made over the past few years and to make sure that the improvements we have made to the service we provide are sustainable and are the foundations that make Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service even stronger in the future.”

Darren Dovey is also Chair of the Local Resilience Forum, which co-ordinates the county’s response to major emergencies, including the pandemic.

Darren Dovey was appointed Chief Fire Officer on 1 April 2016.  He was born in London but has lived in Northampton since the age of 7, growing up and going to school in the Thorplands area.

He joined Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue in 1987 and transferred to London Fire Brigade in 1999 moving to Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2008 as an area manager.  During his career he worked on the fire at Windsor Castle, was at Russell Square as part of the response to the 07/07 bombings in London and attended the Buncefield Oil Depot fire in Hertfordshire.  In 2005, he was press liaison officer at the scene of a fatal house fire in Stoke Newington in which three children died.

Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “I’m very grateful for the leadership that Darren has brought to Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and the determined way he dealt with the considerable financial and organisational challenges that the service has faced.

“I’ve been constantly impressed by his determination to make our fire service an effective organisation that truly meets the needs of the community and has the safety of the public and its staff at the heart of everything it does.  That’s been very clear during the pandemic, when Darren has ensured that Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has stepped up to support other agencies as well as focussing on their day job, and I know how much that commitment is appreciated.

“Darren’s will be big shoes to fill but he can be assured that he will leave Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service in a much stronger place than it was when he became Chief Fire Officer.”

After firefighters were called to a spate of deliberate fires in Daventry town centre in 2017, the consensus was that something needed to be done to tackle a growing and worrying trend.

That year saw fire crews called out 77 times to public areas to tackle flames that had been deliberately started, putting not just the perpetrator at risk of injuring themselves, but also putting at risk firefighters and members of the public.

It was at this point that leading organisations in Daventry came together – and the end result was Operation Unite. The scheme works to reduce arson and anti-social behaviour in and around Daventry town centre and is run as a partnership that includes amongst others Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service, West Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire Police, Daventry Town Council and Neighbourhood Watch.

Norm James was a Watch Manager at Daventry Fire Station at the time Op Unite was formed and remains heavily involved in the scheme in his new position as a Community Safety Officer for the fire service’s Prevention team.

He said: “We were getting a lot of deliberate fires in the town centre, but I think it was one event that triggered it. There was an incident in the High Street and some bins were set on fire next to a House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) and it stopped anyone escaping from the flats because it was smoke-filled.

“We started looking at deliberate fires and went to a council meeting where the Community Safety Partnership was, and we aired our concerns as there was a big discrepancy between our figures and the police’s figures – which was down to the different ways in which they were recorded.

“With the endangerment to life that these fires posed we started working with all these organisations and co-ordinated with each other to do what we could to drive those figures down.”

And the improvement has been stark. Those 77 deliberate fires back in 2017 had dropped down to 17 in 2021, a massive decrease of 78 per cent across the Daventry district. Equally as impressive was that 26 of the deliberate fires in 2017 were in Daventry town centre, but there have now been no deliberately started fires in the town centre in 2020 and 2021.

And Kirsten Bates, a Police Community Safety Officer (PCSO) in the Daventry Neighbourhood Policing Team, has attributed that success down to a new joined up way of thinking across all the services.

“It just highlights and demonstrates the positive partnership working we have here in Daventry,” says Kirsten.

“In the past we (police and fire) would have worked on our own, but now we work together.

“Where I have worked in the past there was very little partnership working and over the years that has developed and definitely since coming to Daventry we’ve worked together on a huge amount.”

Other aims of Operation Unite include promoting water safety – with partnership work from the Canal & River Trust and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution – as well as creating a safer environment in the Daventry district, reducing waste issues and fly-tipping working alongside Norse, and educating local businesses about fire safety.

Events that the partners have organised include a town centre survey to gain feedback on issues affecting the area, a day of action on the Southbrook estate to share fire prevention and community safety advice with residents and two Emergency Services Fun Days at Danetre and Southbrook Learning Village.

The success of Operation Unite is no doubt food for thought for Norm in his new role, which sees his patch stretched to the entirety of West Northamptonshire.

He said: “Everyone was doing their own little bit but there was no linking up and it was named Operation Unite as we wanted to unite all these partners.

“It was originally for Daventry town centre, and then we moved into areas like Southbrook and have continued to branch out. I see no reason why a similar scheme can’t be made to work in other areas of the county.”

And Kirsten Bates added: “It’s something that has been mentioned about doing cross county and a lot of different areas are now working with similar concepts.

“The partnership working didn’t stop during lockdown either. We’re proactive as well as reactive and we’ll look at each issue as it occurs, not just from a police or fire perspective but from a joint perspective.”

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service were called at 12.33pm on Thursday 3 February, to a property in Grendon following reports of a horse being stuck in a swimming pool. On arrival at the incident crews from Moulton and Wellingborough found the adult horse had entered an empty 1.5m deep swimming pool and was unable to get out.

The horse, called Wizard, had come from the adjacent field through a broken gate. Animal Rescue Technicians, Watch Manager Ben Stone and Watch Manager Phil Jones formulated a plan with the owner of the horse and property, to assist it out of the pool. They constructed a stairway from old pallets and slowly lured the horse out using carrots, hay and sugar lumps. A vet was on hand to provide assistance if Wizard became distressed, but as the horse remained calm, they did not require Wizard to be sedated.

Large animal rescues can be quite challenging and dangerous due to the unpredictability of the animal. This is why the Fire Service have specially trained Animal Rescue Technicians and specialist equipment such as the Unimog. Due to the calm nature of the horse, crews were able to assist Wizard out of the pool without using any of their specialist equipment.  It took around 45 mins to rescue Wizard and crews left the scene at just after 1.30pm.