FIRE chiefs have ruled out buying electric fire engines after an Echo FOI revealed the service has paid £2.6m for fuel.
The cost of filling up Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service’s 70-plus fire engines peaked in 2022/23 when fuel prices rose nationwide.
That year, the service had to pay £718k to fuel up the fleet – a 49 per cent rise from the previous financial year’s costs of £481k.
But last year (2023/24), this figure had fallen back down to £575k – around the same as 2019/20’s figure of £525k but higher than 2020/21’s costs of £325k.
In total, from April 2019 to March 2024, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service has had to pay £2.629m on fuel for the fire engines, the Echo has learned.
Assistant chief officer and director of service support Jill McCrae said the expenses costs have risen but funding has not matched.
Eight fire stations across Dorset and Wiltshire are set to lose a fire engine, while Poole - which provides cover across the south of Dorset – faces losing a full-time crewed fire engine by April 2025.
Ms McCrae said: “During 2021 fuel prices increased dramatically, peaking in 2022. This resulted in increased fuel costs across our fleet which heightened the pressure on our budgets.
“These further costs have not been matched by increases to our funding. We continue to monitor our fuel usage, our fleet levels and requirements, ensuring we can be there when our communities need us.
“As with many public sector organisations, we are facing significant financial challenges and we have a programme of work in place to make sure we are sustainable for the future.”
Two summers ago, the London Fire Brigade started trialling electric fire engines as part of Sadiq Khan's ambitions for net zero.
Ms McCrae revealed Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service has looked at the possibility of investing in electric fire engines, but it proved too expensive.
She added: “Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is committed to reducing our environmental impact by upgrading our non-emergency vehicles to electric ones.
“We continue to look at modernising our operational fleet, but electric fire engines are much more expensive, costing about £1 million each compared to £360,000 for a traditional fire engine.”
“We also have to consider the EV infrastructure available across our mostly rural service area.”
The FOI also revealed the service’s red fleet (emergency response vehicles such as fire engines or officer cars) used 1.392million litres of fuel between April 2019 and March 2024.
Meanwhile, the white fleet (non-operational response support vehicles) used 966,000 litres of fuel in the same period.
HERE are the exact broken down costs and fuel used in litres for each financial year:
2019/20 - £528,365 - red fleet 284,807.64L - white fleet 171,542.55L
2020/21 - £325,363 - red fleet 241,547.13L - white fleet 122,813.24L
2021/22 - £481,588 - red fleet 272,325.94L - white fleet 116,625.28L
2022/23 - £718,735 - red fleet 303,833.92L - white fleet 133,159.99L
2023/24 - £575,863 - red fleet 290,432.47L - white fleet 422,595.63L
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