South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
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Andy Strelczenie named Deputy Chief Fire Officer

Andy Strelczenie has been named South Yorkshire’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer, following a rigorous selection process.

Andy, who is currently the service’s Assistant Chief Fire Officer, was promoted following multiple recruitment stages and an interview by the Fire Authority’s appointments committee.

Andy has worked within the fire and rescue service for 27 years, originally at Hereford and Worcester Fire & Rescue Service before transferring to South Yorkshire where he has overseen emergency response, service improvement, business fire safety and inspection planning, amongst other roles.

Fire Authority Chair Cllr Charlie Hogarth, said: “The Fire Authority’s appointments panel found Andy to be an extremely impressive candidate and we were excited by his vision for the service. We were unanimous in our decision to appoint him to the position of Deputy Chief Fire Officer and are excited to continue working closely with him in his new role.”

Andy Strelczenie, said: “I look forward to working with people across the service to continually improve the work we do for local people. I very much look forward to using my skills and experience to foster a positive workplace culture for all our staff.”

Andy will take up his new role in March, when the current Deputy Chief Fire Officer Tony Carlin retires.

Fire service marks new law anniversary with high-rise residential buildings plea

The fire service is calling on those responsible for South Yorkshire’s high-rise residential buildings to get in touch, a year after new regulations came into force.

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue says barely more than one in 10 owners or managers of the relevant buildings have supplied it with information they are now legally responsible for providing.

The law requires people responsible for buildings of 18m in height, or at least seven storeys, containing two or more domestic dwellings, to provide information to fire and rescue services including building plans, defective lifts and details of external wall systems.

The information is intended to help the fire service plan and provide an effective response hem plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Tony Carlin, said: “These regulations were introduced to meet the majority of the recommendations made in the Phase 1 report of the Grenfell Tower Enquiry, which required a change in the law. Even though the regulations came into force more than a year ago now, we’re still yet to hear from a large number of building owners or managers for whom the law applies to.

“Ultimately, the regulations are there to ensure that if a fire does occur in high-rise premises, we can tackle the incident safely. We will be contacting owners and managers we’ve not yet heard from to ensure compliance.”

The Fire Safety Regulations (England) 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Further information about the new regulations and what you need to do is available on the Government website which includes a series of fact sheets which provide more detailed information.

Responsible persons can share the required information here.