A fire chief has heaped praise on his crews for the “fantastic” effort to keep Aberdeen safe despite coronavirus outbreaks at fire stations across the city.
Local senior officer Bruce Farquharson revealed firefighter attendance rates at city stations have been twice as high as the industry standard throughout the pandemic.
He praised firefighters for going “above and beyond” to maintain crew numbers in the crisis, despite strict rules being enforced to limit the spread of coronavirus in the workplace.
Absence rates in Aberdeen have hovered between 2.5% and 3.5% since the outbreak.
Mr Farquharson updated councillors on measures taken to protect firefighters in this time, including working in “bubbles” using the same fire engines to limit contacts.
The area commander told members of the city’s public protection committee yesterday: “We have had a few instances where people have had to self-isolate and we are fortunate to be able to have a deep clean of stations at very short notice by a specialist firm.
“We have had that enacted on a handful of occasions across Aberdeen.
“We have also put in place flexible crew arrangements so when we have had self-isolating – possibly the entire bubble – we have had a flexibility within the arrangements so we could respond with lower numbers of personnel but higher numbers of appliances to incidents.
“The net result was a higher rate of response, with more stations involved.
“It has been a challenge – I won’t take away from that – but it is a challenge personnel in Aberdeen have risen to magnificently.”
