Organisation
ECFRS's headquarters is located in Witham. In 2002 the service was divided into seven Community Commands, to reflect the increasing need for the fire service to work in closer contact with communities. They are:
- Basildon and Castle Point Community Command
- Chelmsford and Maldon Community Command
- Colchester and Tendering Community Command
- Harlow and Epping Community Command
- Southend and Rochford Community Command
- Thurrock and Brentwood Community Command
- Uttlesford and Braintree Community Command
The Chief Fire Officer is David Johnson, since July 2005.
The Emergency Operational Fire Control is situated in Hutton. 46 control staff handle approximately 500,000 calls each year, including over 60,000 999 emergency calls. The control staff also carry out incident co-ordination, appliance mobilisation and movements to ensure strategic fire cover, movement of personnel and advanced call handling to give life protecting advice via the telephone. Radio communications are made between incidents and Fire Control and control staff liaise with other emergency services and provide additional resources when requested by firefighting personnel. Emergency calls are handled in an average of 54 seconds from the time of answering to the time of dispatching the fire crew.
There are five firefighter training centres, located in Basildon, Chelmsford, Orsett, Witham and Wethersfield.
The service workshop is in Lexden, and it is here that the operational fleet of 73 frontline fire appliances and 25 specialist appliances are maintained, and the reserve fleet of spare appliances are stored.
Read more about this topic: Essex County Fire And Rescue Service
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“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)