THE serious flooding of Hexham fire station for the second time in a decade has set alarm bells ringing about delays in transferring the service to a new fire station behind the town’s hospital.

The fire station on Tyne Mills was put out of action on December 5 last year when it was swamped by Storm Desmond, forcing firefighters to operate from the doomed Haydon Bridge fire station.

But although deputy chief fire officer Paul Hedley assured Hexham Town Council on Monday that the loss of Hexham station for 24 hours had no real impact on the response capability of the Northumberland fire and rescue service, councillors remained concerned.

Mr Hedley said: “We have structures in place to enable us to respond to all eventualities even with both Hexham and Haydon Bridge unavailable.

“We lost the use of Hexham fire station due to flooding, but at no stage were we unable to provide full cover.”

However, Coun. Derek Kennedy remained worried that the fire station had suffered serious flooding for a second time and changing weather patterns made it likely it would flood again sooner rather than later.

He expressed concerns for the welfare of the firefighters themselves, for following the last flooding episode, several members of the crews had become ill with water-borne diseases picked up at the swamped station.

He said: “We know the fire station was built on a flood plain and I am very concerned for the future, especially as the county seems set on closing Haydon Bridge fire station, which served as temporary accommodation while Hexham was flooded out.

“Surely you cannot close the Haydon Bridge station until the new fire station behind the hospital is ready for use.”

On the perceived threat to the welfare of staff, Mr Hedley said protection for staff had improved beyond recognition since the 2005 floods, with the introduction of waders and waterproof clothing and other protocols for dealing with hazards which were not available a decade ago.

He added: “We were out of the station for 24 hours, but it has since been industrially cleaned to a standard far in excess of what happened in 2005.

“We have certainly not had any reports of firefighters or anyone else suffering ill effects from last month’s flood water.”

He did, however, indicate he would welcome support from the town council to keep Haydon Bridge open until such time as Hexham’s proposed new fire station was up and running.

Haydon Bridge is scheduled to close in September or October, but the new Hexham station is not expected to be ready until next January at the earliest.

He said: “The final contracts have still not been signed off, but we are confident that we will be able to start work around May on what will be a 37-38 week build.

“Hopefully, we should be in the new fire station by this time next year.

“We hope we won’t have any more flooding incidents before then, but even if we do, we have contingencies in place to deal with them.”

Mr Hedley stressed that the potential closure of Haydon Bridge and the loss of its fire appliance would not reduce fire cover in Hexham or wider Tynedale, as modern communication methods and improved weather forecasting techniques meant that crews and equipment could swiftly be transferred from other areas in times of emergency.

In the recent floods, staff and equipment from Berwick and West Hartford had been deployed to Hexham and agreements were in place to get back-up assistance from fire services in Tyne and Wear, Durham and Cumbria, as well as Scotland when required.