The Noord-Holland Noord safety region wants to reorganize the fire service. All 52 fire stations in the region are to be divided into three categories. As a result, two posts will close, 14 will be downsized and others will expand.
“It is therefore not a question of cutbacks, but a redevelopment,” says Krishna Taneja, regional commander and director of the security region to NH Nieuws. “We want to increase one third of the 52 locations, keep one third the same and light one third.”
Slimming or expanding?
This also means that in some areas, according to the risk analysis of the security region, barracks are no longer needed. The locations in Ursem and Slootdorp will be closed in the plan of the security region. This is partly due to stricter rules regarding fire safety in new buildings, the effects of the efforts on prevention and the fact that companies are taking increasingly better measures to prevent incidents. “You are talking about posts here that have a maximum of thirty incidents per year,” says Taneja. “The surrounding posts can take over the work here.”
Barracks where the risk of ‘complex firefighting’ is higher, the security region wants to expand. “For example in an old city center such as Hoorn and Alkmaar”, Taneja explains. “There you have many old buildings, there is a lot of risk of fire and water extraction is complicated. Acting in the event of a fire is simply very complex there.”
Budget neutral
Bottom line, according to Taneja, there are no cutbacks on the fire service. “But we have not received an extra budget since 2015 and we see the challenges becoming more and more complex.” Development must therefore be budget neutral. “Then something has to be removed at the bottom, so that we can invest it elsewhere.”