I want to clear up any misunderstanding which could arise following your report and editorial comment on the proposed crewing changes at East Grinstead and Haywards Heath Fire Stations (The Argus, January 20).

Firefighters at East Grinstead and Haywards Heath already operate a "day crewing system", whereby they are at the fire station during the day and respond from their homes during the night if needed in an emergency. When at home, they are alerted by pager and respond to the fire station within four minutes to crew a fire engine.

Under the new proposals, firefighters will still respond from their homes within four minutes during the night.

The only significant operational difference in the new crewing arrangements is that there will be a mixture of firefighters at the station and responding from home during the day on Saturdays and Sundays.

The big advantage of the new crewing is that firefighters will be able to dedicate more time to fire prevention, such as free home fire safety checks and smoke alarm fitting.

Every firefighter will tell you we will save more lives and reduce the number of people injured in fires by preventing them happening in the first place, which is completely at odds with the comment attributed to East Grinstead Town Councillor Beverley Heaseman that, "fire prevention has its place but not at the expense of people's safety".

We would therefore be pleased to see people attend our fire station open evenings at East Grinstead (February 8) and Haywards Heath (February 9), so we can listen to their views and they can hear first-hand why we believe the new crewing will make them safer.

-Graeme Day, area commander, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service