Firefighter numbers will not dwindle in Thame despite a recent budget cut in the money to pay retained officers in Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire County Council said the £30,000 cuts from the £3.5 million budget are only possible due to excellent fire prevention work which has seen call-outs drop by 15%.
Fire officers are paid a retainer fee and are then paid extra for incidents they attend.
However, the cuts are unlikely to effect Thame’s station drastically which employs 18 retained fire fighters.
Retained Station Support Officer, Will McPhail, said: “Thame Fire Station does not have a crew ‘on station’ all day and night; the crew members carry pagers and respond to the station from their home or workplace for each incident.
“We are also designated as a key station within Oxfordshire. As such during the rare event that the local retained crew have not got enough personnel to crew an appliance, or they are at an incident for a prolonged period, an appliance from another station is brought in on standby.
“This effectively means that Thame has at least one appliance available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Thame’s unit only had to respond to 202 incidents of which 93 were fire related, 43 were road traffic collisions, 38 originated from alarms and 28 were special service calls.
Mr McPhail also emphasised how Thame’s station works as part of a co-responding unit with South Central Ambulance Service which provides support to life threatening scenarios.
He added: “Clinical evidence proves that patients in a life-threatening situation who receive this rapid intervention have a better chances of survival.
“This type of incident accounted for an additional 478 calls for assistance in 2012.”
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue is always looking for people who wan to join Thame Fire Station and invite anybody interested to visit the station on a Wednesday between 7pm and 9pm for further information.
They are particularly looking for people available during the daytime and weekends.
