Firefighters in Sidmouth and the wider East Devon area have cancelled all upcoming community events and station visits due to Coronavirus concerns.

Access to Sidmouth Fire Station has now been restricted to staff only as Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service reacts to the Government's move to initiate the 'delay' phase of its Coronavirus response.

A spokesperson for the fire service said: "We have been closely monitoring the Government response to coronavirus and following the move to the 'delay' phase of the response, we are making some changes to the way we do things to protect our frontline services.

"We have various specialist groups, who have been meeting regularly over the past month, and we are well prepared for this pandemic.

"We are continually monitoring and managing the impact of coronavirus on our staff and communities, so that we continue to deliver our frontline services should the virus continue to spread."

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As part of our response to the pandemic, the fire service is taking the following steps to keep its staff and communities safe:

-Restricting access to stations - access to all of our fire stations is now restricted to staff only.

-Cancelling all community events and station and community visits.

The spokesperson added: "We are doing this because we need to protect our frontline staff and prioritise responding to incidents, home fire safety visits to people who are not self-isolating, as well as fire safety checks for businesses. Thank you for your understanding.

"We will always be available for home safety advice over the phone – please call 0800 05 02 999."