Four fire stations in Cornwall had trouble responding on the night of the Penhallow Hotel fire, a new report has revealed.
According to the online news service this is cornwall.co.uk, the report by Cornwall Fire Brigade was submitted to the county council last week. It says that although staffing problems meant that the four stations had trouble responding to the incident, each of the four had already provided a response.
The report concentrates on fire service staffing and equipment levels in relation to the incident, rather than delving into the cause and severity of the fire, which is the subject of separate investigations. It also says that while both of Cornwall’s aerial appliances were out of action that night, the rapid spread of the fire at the hotel meant this did not make a significant difference to the outcome.
The future staffing of Cornwall’s fire stations has been the subject of local and political debate since the fire last summer. Most of the 31 stations in the county are manned by retained firefighters, while five have full-time cover between 8.00am and 6.30pm, and two are currently manned 24 hours a day.
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