Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Creating a safer future – together: Risk assessment

The Fire Service are the lead agency for rescue from inland water.

Kent has one of the highest frequencies of drowning anywhere in the country. We have many inland lakes and waterways, ranging from major rivers to former quarries.

We often see more drownings during periods of warmer weather. Our key rivers in Kent (Medway, Stour, Thames) have fast flowing currents and underwater obstructions. Some of the factors that increase the chance of drowning include:

• Alcohol consumption: some of our major waterways, such as the River Medway and River Stour, flow through the centre of our biggest towns. They often have pubs and bars close by and riverside paths with no barriers. People may fall or enter into the water because of impaired coordination or judgement. Alcohol reduces the body’s ability to respond effectively to cold water, further increasing the danger.
• Open water swimming: this has gained popularity in recent years. In places where people swim alone and unsupervised, open water is often cold, has strong currents, and hidden dangers like sharp objects and fallen trees under the water. People can underestimate the problems this create,s including rapid exhaustion and hypothermia and the effects of cold-water shock.
• Summer crowds: Kent has several major coastal towns that benefit from an influx of tourists in the summer season. This can mean that people who are not normally familiar with coastal waters and their dangers, can get into difficulty, for example being caught in strong rip currents.
• Unsupervised children: sadly, in recent years, we have attended incidents where children have drowned after playing in rivers and lakes.
• Lack of swimming skills: there has been a decrease in the number of public swimming pools. As a result there is a backlog of swimming lessons following the estimated 5 million lessons lost because of the COVID pandemic.

• working with partner agencies, including the Coastguard and RNLI, to conduct joint public safety campaigns particularly focusing on locations where we see high numbers of drownings
• proactively promote water safety messages in schools and via our social media channels
• work with local businesses near waterways to promote educational materials
• support the work of the volunteers in the Kent Search and Rescue (KSAR) team who have the ability to search for missing persons in water and who also undertake proactive patrolling of high-risk areas during periods such as Christmas and New Year
• realigning our resources to the areas of greatest need. For example, we have located a new dock and rescue boat in the River Medway near Rochester bridge
• ensure our crews who are located closest to areas of open water have the right skills and equipment to be able to respond to conduct rescues
• maintain our group of specially trained Water Incident Managers
• increase the skills and training of crews in our busiest areas to give them more ability to be able to enter the water safely

• deploy the closest crew to an incident with the ability to at least be able to attempt rescue from the water’s edge
• additionally, send more specialist crews that can enter the water to conduct rescues, including sending rescue boats
• deploy our drones to be able to search for missing persons in the water
• coordinate with other rescue organisations including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Kent Search and Rescue (KSAR), and HM Coastguard

Rescues from depth include accessing spaces such as sewers, quarries, and tunnels. They typically involve accessing areas classed as confined spaces. As such they require specialist training and procedures in accordance with Health and Safety Legislation.

Hazards include limited access and egress, potential build-up of toxic gasses and irrespirable atmospheres, flammable gasses, extremes of temperature, and sudden and rapid ingress of water or other liquids such as sewage.

Kent has a vast network of underground tunnels and structures, including wartime bunkers and disused mines. We have attended incidents involving persons entering these tunnels and becoming lost, partial tunnel collapses, and persons suffering medical episodes in them.

• we are proactive in promoting safety messages and working with partner agencies to reduce the likelihood of these incidents occurring
• we maintain a specialist line rescue and technical rescue capability to be able to gain access to these locations
• our technical rescue team can put in place arrangements to allow our crews to work in confined space environments
• we ensure that crews have a range of surveying equipment available to them to be able to determine if an environment is safe

• we send the range of resources required to be able to put in place safe systems of work and ensure that we can access casualties quickly
• our rescue plans are designed around the needs of the casualty and crews can select from a range of specialist equipment

People can become trapped by a variety of circumstances. Most commonly we deal with persons who are trapped as a result of being involved in a road traffic collision (risk number 36). Other ‘trapped person’ scenarios include persons trapped in machinery, stuck in unstable ground such as mud or sand, or in lifts.

Incidents most commonly involve the entrapment of a single person, although less frequently we can attend incidents where multiple persons are trapped.

The major hazards of such incidents are

• the risk of further entrapment (for example because of moving machinery)

or

• entrapment of our colleagues involved in making a rescue attempt.

These incidents require close cooperation between our firefighters and colleagues from other agencies such as the ambulance service. We also provide specialist equipment and training to ensure that these incidents can be resolved as quickly and as safely as possible.

• we are proactive in promoting safety messages and working with partner agencies to reduce the likelihood of these incidents occurring
• we locate specialist rescue capabilities across the county. These include mud rescue teams, line rescue, and our technical rescue team
• these teams receive regular training in these specialist roles and have access to a variety of specialist equipment
• we maintain a team of Urban Search and Rescue tactical advisors who can assess what is required at an incident and call on specialist resources accordingly

• all our crews have the ability to respond to any rescue scenario and put in place arrangements to ensure an overall level of safety and to begin to provide casualty care
• the needs of a trapped person vary depending on the circumstances. We send specially trained crews and officers capable of assessing the needs of the casualty and what equipment and procedures are required

Rescues from height are complicated as they often require extensive safety systems to be put in place to conduct the rescue. Kent has miles of high cliffs along its coast and we are often called to perform rescues of people or animals who have gone over the edge and become trapped. At these incidents we work closely with Coastguard rescue teams. From time to time, we also conduct rescues of people from roofs, scaffolding, cranes, and trees.

In the last 5 years we have undertaken over 200 rescues from height.

We maintain a specialist rope (line) rescue team in Deal and have rope rescue capability within our Urban Search and Rescue team. We also provide equipment for safe working at height on our wholetime fire engines. We are able to utilise these crews to also set up work restraint systems for our on-call colleagues.

• train our colleagues in safe working at height
• provide working at height equipment, including equipment capable of being used in a variety of ways to accommodate physical differences such as disabilities
• maintain a specialist line rescue team who can climb and abseil
• coordinate closely with coastguard rescue teams

• our response is designed around the needs of the casualty and to ensure compliance with the Working at Height Regulations
• we send specialist teams to ensure casualties can be rescued as safely as possible almost regardless of their location