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The cost of some of the non-emergency services offered by the Guernsey Fire and Rescue Service have gone up along with other charges levied by the States this year.
The Fire and Rescue Service continues to offer all emergency response services for free.
A spokesperson for Home Affairs confirmed that if GFRS are called to provide assistance in an emergency, they do not charge.
That legal obligation to offer emergency services for free is only waived if there is a written agreement in place with the caller for the Fire and Rescue Service to charge them, however Express is not aware of any such circumstance where that has happened.
Pictured: The 2024 fees chargeable for Fire service personnel to carry out duties like fire safety checks, and more.
The 2024 fees came into force on 1 January but are due to be agreed by the States this month, after a number of lengthy States meetings towards the end of last year saw some business deferred.
The 2024 fees will only cover services which the GFRS can legally charge for and which must be agreed in writing with the person receiving the service beforehand.
This means any safety inspections or checks which are required by law are provided for free. Any services which can be provided by corporate businesses can be charged for and those fees have been uprated for 2024 as outlined in the legislation which can be read in full HERE.
The costs included in the above are calculated using a formula laid down by the Policy & Resources committee for the recovery of such costs.
This includes things like fire marshal training.
Where the specialist equipment owned by GFRS is needed for any of its paid for services, that is billed too.
This can include checks of fire suppression systems, or inspections or survey work of roofs, etc.
These charges can run into hundreds of pounds per hour for the hire of the specialist equipment such as the GFRS turntable, water tenders or tankers and crews.
These fee increases are inline with the higher charges for other services run by the States of Guernsey including the registration duties for vehicles, the cost to register a birth, marriage or death and the registration charges paid by Civil Celebrants and others involved in businesses around births, weddings and deaths.
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