Balmossie firefighters put out only one overnight fire in a building or vehicle in their area in the last three months.
The crews had untroubled nights’ sleep in October and December and were roused only once in November to deal with a primary blaze.
Tayside Fire Brigades Union secretary Ron Costello yesterday said the figures were misleading as they didn’t include the times when Balmossie crews attended incidents outside their area as back-up.
They also didn’t include all the vital work firefighters performed clearing snow and ice from the pavements of care homes during the winter storms.
The station, on the border of Broughty Ferry and Monifieth, has been continually under the spotlight since chief fire officer Stephen Hunter made two failed attempts to downgrade it from whole-time to part-time.
Mr Hunter hoped the fire board would back a plan to reduce night cover at Balmossie to increase provision at Forfar and Perth but the proposal was vetoed for a second time last year after a long-running public campaign.
The issue can’t return to the board’s agenda for at least a year.
Figures for the third quarter of 2010/11, released yesterday by Tayside Fire and Rescue, show that Balmossie was quieter between October and December than during the two previous quarters when crews dealt with three and four overnight blazes in the area respectively.
Mr Costello said the figures did not change his view that Balmossie fulfilled an important role in preventing and dealing with fires in its own area and further afield.Back-upAs well as home safety visits to identify fire risks and prevent outbreaks from happening, crews turned out as back-up for crews from other stations called to outbreaks and other incidents.
“The figures that appear in the quarterly statistics are misleading,” Mr Costello said, “because they don’t record the times when Balmossie crews go out as back-up and that can be a lot of times to places stretching out to Carnoustie.
“When the snow arrived the Balmossie crews were very busy clearing snow and ice from outside the many care homes there are in Broughty Ferry and Monifieth and again this does not show through in the statistics.”
Fire board convener Ken Lyall who has backed the proposal to downgrade Balmossie said, “The figures again speak for themselves. Balmossie is by far the quietest whole-time station in Tayside and the only one that comes close to it is Arbroath but Arbroath is always quite a bit busier.
“It is true that Balmossie crews did a lot of snow and ice clearing but so did the crews at every whole-time station.
“Clearing snow and ice from pavements and gutterings took place during the day and not really at night so Balmossie crews would still have been able to do this at daytime, even if the night shift was changed to part-time.
“Making Balmossie part-time at night would have allowed more full-time firefighters to have been available in places like Forfar during the day for activities including snow clearing.”
Mr Lyall added that the proposal to merge Scotland’s fire services likely to go out for consultation later this month might not help efforts to maintain Balmossie.
“I have never been convinced that centralised services will mean more local democracy,” he said. ” There may be less opportunities for local decisions to be made if things are decided by a body sitting somewhere in the central belt.”