This multi agency approach to safety has been a successful vehicle for the Fire and Rescue Service since the initiative was formed back in 1994. It brings together numerous services that have an interest in child safety.

Crucial Crew takes place in the Safety Zone, Treforest - a mock village, which allows school children, elderly people and other community groups to learn about potentially dangerous situations in real-life scenarios.  The village includes a street with a shop, a police station and cell, a railway track, an electricity sub-station, a pub, a building site and a house.   A road, with a fully working pedestrian crossing, runs through the centre of the village.

The Fire Service “House” consists of two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom.  The groups first visit the kitchen where they are confronted with several hazards which they have to identify and remedy before proceeding to the bedroom.  In the bedroom they are shown the DVD “The bedroom fire” which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and produced by the All Wales Education Group.  The issues  raised within the DVD are discussed and the course of the fire is narrated by the presenter.  All aspects of escape from the building is discussed and culminates in escaping through a smoke filled corridor.

Joining the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service in this initiative are South Wales Police, the Health and Safety Executive, British Transport Police, Forestry Commission, Drug Agencies, Western Power Distribution, Network Rail, Stage coach, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr, Caerphilly and the Vale of Glamorgan County Borough Councils.