Councillors welcome £1m investment in Shetland fire service

Three new appliances have been delivered to Shetland, with two earmarked for Brae and one for Unst.

Councillors welcome £1m investment in Shetland fire service with delivery of new appliances iStock

Councillors have welcomed an investment of almost £1m in Shetland’s fire service.

Three new fire appliances have been delivered to Shetland – two for Brae and one for Unst.

Costing around £277,000 each, they will replacing models which are around 20 years old.

They come with the most up to date equipment, and went into service in Shetland in June.

A meeting of Shetland’s community safety and resilience board heard on Wednesday that new cutting equipment is also being delivered to the isles worth around £120,000 in total.

This is on top of investment in thermal imaging cameras – with every station in Shetland set to have one come October.

These cost around £2,500 each, the meeting heard.

Board chairman Allison Duncan congratulated the fire service on the investment to Shetland.

“It’s not a case of Lerwick, or one area,” he said. “They’re using their investments right through Shetland.”

The meeting also heard that it is unlikely that a platform ladder, which gives firefighters access to high buildings, would ever come to Shetland considering the cost and also the limited chance it would be used.