£1.7m investment in fire services' equipment

Firefighters across the Thames Valley will use the new apparatus

Three fire services will now operate using the latest breathing equipment, following a joint £1.7m investment.

Firefighters across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire will all now use the same breathing apparatus and associated equipment when responding to emergency incidents.

More than 4,000 items of new equipment has been introduced to firefighters operating out of 60 stations.

New equipment includes updated air tanks and a Bluetooth communication system.

Running over three years, the Thames Valley Breathing Apparatus Project has involved operational and support staff from across the three services.

Matt Cook, Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service’s deputy chief fire officer, said: “The new breathing apparatus project has been a culmination of joint working across the three fire and rescue services."

"We now have a single breathing apparatus equipment as part of this collaboration work across the Thames Valley.”

The new kit, manufactured by Interspiro, is fully adjustable and lighter than previous apparatus.

The new apparatus includes updated air tanks

Adam Burch, group commander at Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and breathing apparatus project manager said: “This was a particular complex and protracted project, from the initial conceptual idea back in August 2019, throughout research and tender phases, all the way to final implementation and roll-out across the service areas."

He added that the end result had been a “successful delivery" of a collaborative process which will "enable our Thames Valley firefighters to provide the best response to our communities".

Due to the scale of the project, the new equipment was rolled out to each of the three services in phases.

Royal Berkshire Firefighters were the first to start wearing the new sets at operational incidents in March 2023.

The new equipment was launched in Buckinghamshire in April 2023, and Oxfordshire in July 2023.

Mr Burch said feedback from teams using the new equipment had "already indicated this was a positive investment in terms of user safety, comfort, reliability and ease of use".