Balmossie remains Tayside's quietest fire station
Balmossie remains the quietest fire station in Tayside despite an increase in call-outs over the past three months, according to new statistics.
Balmossie fire station.
- By Graham Huband
- Published in the Courier : 13.07.10
- Published online : 13.07.10 @ 02.44pm
The data from Tayside Fire and Rescue Service shows the region's six whole-time fire stations responded to a total of 1478 incidents in the past quarter — 193 of which were serious "primary fires" in which either property or vehicles were damaged.
A further 402 call-outs were to less serious fires where any damage that was caused was deemed to be relatively minor.
The service's headquarters in Blackness Road, Dundee, was the busiest station in the region with more than 400 call-outs, although Macalpine dealt with more major incidents during the three-month period than its sister station in the city.
Over the period, crew members at Balmossie dealt with four major fires and a total of 59 incidents, although 38 of them proved to be false alarms.
The station has been under the spotlight in recent months after Chief Fire Officer Stephen Hunter made two failed attempts to downgrade it from whole-time to part-time.
Mr Hunter had hoped the region's fire board would back a plan to reduce night cover at Balmossie in order to increase provision at Forfar and at Perth.
However, the proposal was vetoed by the fire board for a second time in the spring after a public campaign against the move.
According to the new statistics, a Balmossie appliance attended four small fires and one house blaze in April and dealt with one house fire and one minor blaze in June.
However, in May crews attended 30 incidents, including two major blazes and a further eight secondary fires.
The Balmossie crews dealt with three overnight fires during the course of the three-month period and were called out a further 28 times during the night.
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