The Committee were given a presentation on the operational activity and prevention work of the Kent Fire & Rescue Service in Gravesham for 2022-23.

The presentation had been published and could be accessed through the below link:

·         Kent Fire & Rescue Service Presentation

Following the presentation, the Kent Fire & Rescue Service Managers answered Members’ questions:

·         The Kent Fire & Rescue Service educated young people at schools and that included education on fire safety, misuse of flammables, the danger of fires and seasonal activity related to fires such as Halloween and bonfire night etc. The Area Manager for Dartford and Gravesham, KFRS was happy to look into the education schedule and see if schools were approached before Halloween/Fireworks Night to specially discuss the dangers of fireworks in order to deter ASB behaviour. Future education sessions at schools could also utilise Kent Police messaging around the dangerous use of flammable products

·         The Building Safety Team were responsible for looking into premises where flammable products were being sold and were able to give advice to shop owners or warnings about the selling of age-related products to underage children. Members were encouraged to report any shops that they were concerned about selling age related products to underage children to the Building Safety Team. The contact information for the team was available through the Kent Fire & Rescue Service website

·         The Building Safety Team carried out some work investigating problem premises last year with the Council

·         Following the fire at the New Inn on Queen Street, the KFRS would have only been involved in the emergency phase, the building was then handed over to the responsible person during the recovery phase. Due to the building being Listed it required additional steps to be taken by the property owner which delayed any additional work being undertaken following the KFRS making the building safe. The building remains had to be preserved and experts were brought in to decide the best way forward without further damaging or destroying the building; options such as pushing in the walls and flattening the building were not allowed due to it being Listed. Preserving Listed Buildings was a very complicated process and would have been a reason for the delays in continuing any work to the building after the fire

·         The Building Safety Team were aware of all the stacked-up tyres at the Canal Basin, and they had already visited the site and tested all of the hydrants. Staff from the Northfleet Station had revisited the site a week ago and taken further pictures of the stacked tyres and forwarded them to the Building Safety Team again so that they could continue to look into and determine what action could be taken

·         Information sharing between organisations was essential in the long term and the Kent Fire & Rescue Service had a great relationship with the Council and the Community Safety Partnership

·         The Kent Fire & Rescue Service would not refer to an injured party as a customer, they would be referred to as a casualty or a patient if they were involved in any sort of medical care

·         Very few calls made to the Kent Fire & Rescue Service were malicious however there were many calls classed as ‘false alarms’ which were for things such as burnt cooking which had set an alarm off or a bonfire that was an attended event. The calls were well intended by worried callers, but they did not require any action by the Kent Fire & Rescue Service. Generally, those callers classed as ‘false alarms’ would receive fire safety advice from a member of staff to make sure it didn’t happen again

·         There is a number on the website to arrange home safety visits, but the majority of the visits were arranged through the engagement team at local events, meetings, and local interactions with people. Operational crews also gathered information and data on properties with over sixties living in so that the engagement team could visit them and offer them a home safety visit. Houses were knocked on three times at different times and if no one answered following three separate door knocks then a sealed letter was posted to them promoting what the team did and a direct contact number for them to call to arrange a visit

The Station Manager – Northfleet, KFRS apologised for not including information pertaining to the rural areas of Gravesham and agreed to include the statistics and mapping of fires in the rural areas at the next update to the Committee.

Concern was raised by a Member regarding street art on the flank wall of a tattoo shop on the corner of Trafalgar Road, Gravesend that is located opposite a primary school and had a piece of graffiti on the face of the shop depicting a man smoking cannabis. The Chair agreed it was a cause for concern and should be raised with Planning Enforcement who would be able to determine the correct course of action for the graffiti to be removed.

The Chair asked that the Committee’s thanks be passed to staff at the Kent Fire & Rescue Service for their hard work.