Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MAWWFRS) has completed an engagement process to shape its future approach to dealing with flooding, bringing together operational staff, partner agencies, and community representatives in a series of ‘Flooding Balanced Room’ workshops.

The Balanced Room approach ensured all voices were heard equally, fostering collaboration and co-design of solutions to a pressing challenge - the increasing risk and impact of flooding in Mid and West Wales.

Why It Matters

Within the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service area around 31,000 properties are at risk from flooding. Of these, nearly 24,000 are at risk from river flooding and over 7,000 at risk of tidal flooding.

On average the Service attends around 300 incidents of water rescues and weather related flooding annually.

Flooding incidents are increasing in frequency and impact driven by climate change, including higher rainfall intensity and sustained weather events. These events pose significant risks to firefighter and community safety, disrupt essential services, damage property, and place sustained demand on Service resources, highlighting that current “one size fits all” response arrangements are no longer sufficient.

At the same time, community and societal conditions, along with industrial and transport risks, look very different today, compounded by the wider impacts of climate change such as increased rainfall and prolonged dry periods. Combined with our expanding emergency response portfolio and our protection and prevention responsibilities, the nature of business for MAWWFRS has changed significantly compared to even ten years ago.

Flooding activity over recent years shows a clear seasonal pattern, with the highest volume of flooding incidents occurring October to February.

The third quarter of 2025/26 was the busiest quarter for flooding incidents since 2017/18.

Individual months have also seen notable spikes with February 2020 and November 2025 recording the highest monthly levels of flooding activity.

Since April 2020: Type B (Boat/SRT) teams have been mobilised regularly, but boat assets are launched in only 15% of attendances, reflecting predominantly shallow‑water flooding scenarios.

What Was Achieved

Across two workshops and an online session, participants generated and tested ideas against agreed criteria.

This process resulted in four appraisal priorities: Prevention First, Collaboration and Partnership, Enhanced Specialist Capability, and Learning and Continuous Improvement.

Eleven initial options were then streamlined into five, aligned to the themes of Prevention, Protection, Response, and Recovery, forming a focused set of proposals for appraisal and executive consideration.

The Refined Options

Option A: Prevention - Prevention, Education and Community ResilienceFocus: Reducing risk before flooding occurs.

Actions include:

  • Public‑facing education across schools, learner drivers, youth groups, and community events.
  • Consistent, multi‑agency flood messaging aligned with NRW, Local Authorities, Police, Welsh Water and insurers.
  • Community flood groups, wardens and improved two‑way communication/reporting routes (e.g. mailboxes, QR codes).
  • Integration of flood awareness into Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC/Business Fire Safety BFS) visits and community risk reduction work.
  • Clear messaging on culvert/drain responsibilities, routine maintenance, and reporting processes.
  • Targeted hotspot prevention based on shared intelligence, incident data and local knowledge.
  • Preventative messaging (e.g. insurance implications, safe driving, hazard perception).

Option B: Protection - Staff Training, Competency and PreparednessFocus: Ensuring staff have the right skills to perform their roles. Actions include:

  • Incremental approach to strengthening training provision, focusing on practical enhancements that improve scenario realism and support sustainable long‑term training needs.
  • Improved swim tests and realistic training scenarios.
  • Enhanced Pre-Determined Attendances (PDAs).
  • More qualified Water Incident Managers (WIM).
  • Multi-agency training and pre‑flood coordination and structured, seasonal, multi-agency debriefs.
  • Sustainable Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for On‑Call and Wholetime staff.

Option C: Protection/Response - Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), Staff Welfare and Infrastructure.Focus: Making sure staff have suitable PPE and facilities.Actions include:

  • Personal‑issue PPE for all staff.
  • Welfare pods, toilets, hydration and hygiene access.
  • Industrial washing machines and modern drying rooms.
  • Protracted incident management and Welfare Officer roles.
  • Station upgrades aligned to risk.
  • Use of partner‑agency welfare assets (NRW, Coastguard, Mountain Rescue) where appropriate.

Option D: Response - Enhance Capability, Vehicles and Technology.Focus: Modern, flexible, data‑driven operational capabilityActions include:

  • Enhancing Type D capability as a minimum and uplift to Type C capability where required.
  • Increasing Technical Rescue Team capacity.
  • Introducing Modular and flood‑optimised vehicles (4x4, pods, welfare units).
  • Improved Airwave, phased alerting & Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s).
  • Additional equipment including reach poles, remote‑rescue devices, pumps and personal‑issue kit.
  • Drone integration & shared intelligence systems.
  • Development of data‑led fleet and asset planning using climate projections, FARDAP, risk overlays and IRS data.

Option E: Recovery - Recovery and Post‑Incident Community Support.

Focus: Supporting communities after flooding and preventing recurrence.Actions include:

  • Post‑incident engagement (“hot strikes”).
  • Seasonal multi-agency structured debriefs.
  • Updated Operational Tactical Plans (OTPs) informed by post-incident intelligence.
  • Vulnerable person checks and improved signposting and clearer pathways to local authority, NRW or insurance support.
  • Rapid removal of signage.
  • Community reassurance and preparedness support.
  • Strengthened internal flood‑investigation capacity to understand causes and prevent recurrence.

Next Steps

These options have now been assessed against the agreed criteria, with recommendations presented to the Service’s Executive Leadership Team. Discussions focused on priorities, sequencing, and how the proposals will be integrated into the Service’s flooding strategy and the CRMP 2040.

Iwan Cray, Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said:“The Flooding Balanced Room process has highlighted the importance of collaboration. By listening to our staff, partners, and communities, we’ve created practical, forward‑thinking solutions that will strengthen our ability to prevent and manage flooding in Mid and West Wales. Together, we can build a safer, more resilient Wales.”

For more information on the CRMP 2040 journey and the future approach to dealing with flooding, visit Community Risk Management Plan 2040 or contact [email protected]