Figures show excellent response times by Fire Service in Craigavon

Lurgan Station which is manned by full time and part time staff attended 1,403 call outs in 2011 and 2012 with a response time of six 
minutes.

The crews also attended 728 fires during that period and also had an average response time of six minutes.

In comparison, sister Fire Station at Portadown had an average response time of eight minutes.

The mostly part time crew attended 1,007 incidents in 2011 and 2012 and the average response time for call outs to these incidents was eight minutes.

The Portadown station attended 391 fires in that period and the average response time was nine minutes.

The figures, issued on the Detail website show that there were 51,669 incidents attended by Northern Ireland’s fire fighters during 2011 and 
2012.

It costs on average £2,797 for each fire appliance to respond to an emergency incident.

This cost includes fixed costs like heat, lighting, staff costs etc. In many cases, more than one appliance will attend.

The Fire Service’s own performance targets apply only to dwelling and property fires.

In these cases, they aim to respond to fires in high risk areas within six minutes, in medium risk areas within 12 minutes and in low risk areas by 21 minutes.

For more information on the Northern Ireland Fire Service, please visit www.nifrs.org.