Staffordshire Police Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams received an update on the progress of a trial plan during a public performance meeting.

Senior staff said that over the 16 months of the hearing, the three-man team attended 636 incidents, including building fires and accidents, and said that in August, a three-man team responded to a house fire in Lichfield and firefighters entered the building and fought the blaze. save the person inside.

Deputy Fire Chief Glynn Luznyj said the service still aims to have at least four firefighters on pagers, but where that is not possible, three-person teams are deployed.

This has led to an increase in the availability of on-call engines, he said, with three-man crews arriving at incidents an average of nine minutes, or 45 seconds, earlier than the next fully crewed device.

Mr Luznyj added: “This is all about improving the opportunity for our firefighters to respond faster and earlier, while the nearest devices are activated as normal.”