Coronavirus: Fire chiefs prepared for further spread of Covid-19

Around 91 cases have been confirmed in the North East and Yorkshire out of a total of 1,543 in the UK at the time of writing.

But bosses at County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) are confident they already have plans in place to deal with the outbreak.

“The first thing is to reassure members that the service are as prepared as we can possibly be for the work that we need to undertake” chief fire officer (CFO), Stuart Errington, said.

“We have a detailed business continuity plan based on flu pandemic and following Public Health England’s advice we have been modifying that plan and making it specific for the coronavirus pandemic.

“In essence it means that we’re going to do everything we can to protect staff and the public.

“We have done lots of communication with staff over the last few weeks giving them the key messages around washing their hands and good hygiene and we have increased the amount of cleaning we have got in public areas of stations.

“We’re also limiting access to stations as well, we have had the control room limited in access for the last few weeks.

“We’re also stopping all non-essential meetings on stations and members of the public going on to stations to do everything we can to protect the emergency response side of things.

“Obviously we’re limiting contact with the public as well and reviewing non-emergency situations and seeing what we will continue to do and not continue to do.”

The fire chief was speaking at a meeting of the fire authority on March 17 which was held to discuss several key business matters.

It is unknown whether the fire authority will continue to meet as normal if coronavirus, which causes the illness Covid-19, continues to spread in the region.

“We’re working closely with the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) and are really well plugged in to what the LRF is doing and there’s some good work going on across County Durham and Darlington,” CFO Stuart Errington added.

“We will take stock of what we’re doing with the fire authority meetings but it was important that we had this one.”

Fire authority chair and Durham councillor, John Robinson, asked for a memo to be circulated giving best wishes to staff across all departments at CDDFRS.

This included thanking them for “coming in and ensuring there will be a continuity of fire service.”

At the time of writing, there were two confirmed coronavirus cases in Darlington and one in County Durham.

The illness can affect the lungs and airways and symptoms include a high temperature and a “new, continuous cough.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced drastic measures on Monday March 16 in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease.

These included asking people to avoid pubs, restaurants and social gatherings, and to work from home where possible.

For more information, visit: www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus