Our Local Fire Service

Red Hill Park Fire Station is the local station for Winton. The building was opened in 1960 and took over from the earlier Winton Fire station in Wimborne Road. The old fire station was opened in 1927 and is currently used as a store house.

See pictures of it on our then and now page and read the history.

Dave Arundel is Station manager at Redhill fire station. He has been with the fire service since the beginning of 1992 and stationed at Redhill since 2003.

He lives witnin the station's coverage area with his wife and two children who are students at Oakmead College of Technology.

There are four whole time watches at Redhill that work 24/7. Each watch has eight fire fighters and normally five fire fighters on station at any one time. The others would be working at other stations in Dorset or be on training courses or annual leave.

Currently the fire appliance from the station attends around 1500 incidents per year. These calls cover a whole spectrum from house fires to heath fires and road traffic collisions.

Winton itself is a very safe place to live and although it makes up around a fifth of the fire station's ground only around 10% of the dwelling fires for the station have occurred in the area over the last five years.

There are three vehicles kept at the station - one frontline appliance that is available 24 hours a day 365 days per year, a spare appliance that is available to replace any that need repair in the county and an operational support vehicle which carries additional equipment and internal deliveries around the county.

The station also has a breathing apparatus training facility, which is used by crews from Redhill and surrounding stations.

Fire Prevention

Responding to emergencies is only a very small part of the service the station offers to the local community. One of the main aims of the fire service is to prevent incidents through partnership working and education.

The Dorset Fire Authority pay for every schoolchild in Dorset of school age to attend the interactive safety centre at streetwise. In addition to this schools in the Redhill Station area are offered fire safety education talks at Key stages 1, and 2.

Fire fighters from Redhill working in partnership with local schools support these talks. We also deliver a presentation to 6th form and university students on the public service course at schools and colleges.

Arson remains the stations biggest challenge with a number of initiatives being rolled out over the last three years. These have had a significant effect with a sharp decline in both car and heathland fires as a result.

The protection of the public in their own homes is a primary concern of the service and over the past year there has been an unprecedented number of fire deaths.

Dorset Fire and Rescue service is committed to reducing this number to Nil. One of the ways of doing this has been able to offer fire safety advice to occupants in their own homes.

In many cases occupiers have been provided with smoke detectors as a result of the home fire safety risk check. These have been supplied and fitted free of charge by the service. The appointment has been made at the occupier's convenience; this has been at anytime and is not restricted to office hours.

Many of the visits have taken place over the weekends, as the crews are always available (subject to fire calls).

The examples listed above are only a sample of the many initiatives and partnerships that the service is involved in.

If you have a community group that may benefit from a talk on the fire service and home fire safety or you would like to make an appointment to have a home safety risk check. Please contact the fire station on 01202 526847.

For online advice on fire prevention and safety, visit the Dorset Fire and Rescue Service website.