Surrey Fire and Rescue Service will always respond without charge to emergencies that are an immediate threat to life or injury.
However, we do charge for responding to the following:
- People stuck in a lift
- People who are locked out of their house or car
- Automatic fire alarms which are falsely activated
- Animal rescue
- Incident reports
- Incidents involving hazardous materials, once the service have eliminated any hazards to the public or the environment
- Use of service equipment to remove water (if the supply of water is required the water company should be contacted).
We do not charge for some types of special services:
- Road traffic accidents or other types involving entrapment of people
- Actual injury to people
- Risk of fire
- Significant risk or damage to the environment.
Animal rescue
We have an Animal Rescue Unit and are committed to preventing animal suffering. We train our firefighters to rescue animals safely and provide the equipment they need to do so.
However, this is not a statutory function of the fire and rescue service and we do not receive funding for this. The National Framework for Fire and Rescue in England makes it clear that additional services should not impact on our core service. We are therefore planning to introduce some charges to cover the cost of these types of calls.
We also want to work more closely with partners, farmers and animal owners to do our best to prevent incidents involving animals and avoid the need for rescue.
Charges for April 2024 to 2025
Prices from 1 April 2024.
Rates include VAT at the standard rate unless otherwise stated.
Special service attendance charges
| Service | 2024/25 Charge |
|---|---|
| First appliance for the first hour | £499.80 |
| Additional appliance(s) and/or additional hours | £390.60 |
| Aerial Ladder Platform - Special Vehicles | £499.80 |
| Incident Report System (IRS) report, per report | £118.65 |
| Animal rescue | £499.80 |
| Lift rescue | £499.80 |
| Repeated calls to unwanted automatic fire alarms | £499.80 |
| Detailed Fire investigation Reports will be charged for based on the hourly rates of the staff involved. The costs can range from £500 - £2,000 based on the staff time involved in the investigation. | £500 - £2,000 |
Interviews
| Interviews per hour | Charge |
|---|---|
| Firefighter rate per hour | £64 |
| Crew Commander rate per hour | £71 |
| Assistant Group Commander | £102 |
| Mileage Rate 40p per mile or Full Reimbursement of Public Transport Costs | £0.40 |
