Wholetime, day-crewed, On-call and volunteer staff demonstrated professionalism, resilience and sustained commitment throughout a prolonged and demanding incident.

The scale and duration of the incident required careful management of workforce availability and welfare. Measures such as scaling down attendance after 17:00 hours were introduced to reduce the impact on fatigue and wider duty system pressures, when appropriate. However, the incident highlighted the need for clearer expectations around extended deployments, particularly for wholetime crews, where prolonged operational demand may extend beyond standard shift patterns due to protracted travel distances.

The duration and intensity of the incident reinforced the importance of structured and proactive relief planning. The coordination of relief crews improved as the incident progressed, but it was a significant logistical challenge. Given the remoteness of the incident, crews often travelled significant distances to and from their home station.

On-call and volunteer personnel made a particularly significant contribution, often remaining on scene for extended periods. The prolonged nature of the incident began to impact availability for some, particularly where primary employment and personal commitments limited sustained response.

Overall, the incident highlighted the importance of embedding clear and sustainable rotation models from the outset, alongside workforce planning that fully considers the long-term availability and resilience of all duty systems during protracted incidents.

Sustained demands across on scene command, SCG/TCG leadership and business as usual delivery placed significant pressure on officer capacity. This was managed through extended working hours, use of recall to duty and operating with limited resilience within the system.

The wildfire provides further evidence that sustaining strategic leadership, within a structure comprising two Principal Officers supported by Area Managers, can place prolonged demands on capacity during extended incidents. Maintaining governance oversight, alongside business as usual activity in these conditions required extended working patterns for deployment of strategic and senior officers.

In this context, revisiting the recommendations of the external review conducted in 2025 represents a proportionate and evidence informed response.

What Worked Well

• Strong performance and commitment across all duty systems, including wholetime, day-crewed, On-call and volunteer personnel
• High levels of adaptability, with officers and crews flexing roles to meet operational demand
• Introduction of measures to manage fatigue and welfare, including scaling down attendance at key times
• Command arrangements remained effective despite increased pressure and complexity.

Learning Opportunities
• Revisit and consider expectations and planning for extended deployments across all duty systems
• Explore pre-planned relief and rotation models for prolonged incidents
• Review resilience within command roles to reduce multi-hatting and maintain clear role separation