DUE to staff shortages Farnham Fire Station’s fire engine was taken “off the run” for nine hours last Friday (August 4), even though on the previous two days firefighters attended potentially critical incidents between those same times.

Following this development, the firefighters expressed concern regarding cuts to fire services in Surrey on its Facebook page. Surrey’s fire authority recently approved a £10 million cut to Surrey Fire and Rescue Service’s budget, leading to condemnation by the Fire Brigades Union.

Farnham Fire Station posted last Friday: “Due to staff shortages the fire appliance at Farnham is ‘off the run’ today, between the hours of 9am and 6pm. Yesterday we attended a garage fire at 5pm, the day before that, a road traffic collision at 4pm.

“You will still get an emergency response should you require the fire service, although it is likely to be a delayed one due to crews having to come from other areas to cover.

“If you don’t think this is acceptable, please email your local councillor and ask them to stop further cuts to emergency services.”

An appeal for people to share its post was well met, with 185 Facebook users re-posting the station’s message to-date.

Surrey Fire and Rescue was unable to provide a comment before The Herald went to press.