Decision yet to be made on fire services in Sterling
The Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service are expected to make their decision on possible job cuts or station closures in November. Until then, the position will not be made clear.
The fire service had previously warned that it is having to face up to cuts of 12-25 percent during the next four years and so savings will have to be made in some areas to make up for the loss of £4 million.
Speculation has been rife that this will take the form of job losses and the closure of certain stations as seen in other areas of Britain recently. However, Chief Fire Officer Kenny Taylor would not confirm any definitive service changes.
He said:
“There are number of things being looked at but no firm commitment to any of them. It might mean a revised duty system, it might mean we have to think about changing a full time station to part time or changing the part time status of others. It’s all on our radar.
“At the end of it there could be a detailed reshaping of the service, but we do not want compulsory job losses.”
Reviews have taken place as to the potential for the sharing of emergency services premises, but the final decision will not be made for another two months.
South Devon housing association protects tenants with fire safety training
A housing association in Teignbridge has partnered with the local fire service to undergo fire safety training, in order to protect the residents of their buildings.
As part of a pioneering new scheme, staff at Teign Housing have now been given the skills to conduct at least a basic fire risk assessment of tenants’ homes. This will allow them to recommend that safety measures such as fitting fire alarms and planning escape routes be taken by residents.
Teign Housing made the decision to get involved in the scheme after two children were killed in a fire in Torquay, in a property without fire alarms fitted. The residence was managed by Riviera Housing Trust, who later revealed that 25 per cent of their properties were not fitted with fire alarms.
Teign Housing, who has always placed a great importance on smoke alarms, is the first housing association to take part in such a partnership scheme. The CEO of the company, Mike Hanrahan, explained his motivations for getting involved, saying:
“Prevention is always better than cure.
“Fire safety has always been a priority for us, and all of our properties have hard wired smoke alarms fitted as standard.
“But after a number of fatal fires, both locally and nationally, it made us think about what else we could do to prevent a tragedy like this.”
Experts say popular building method may pose fire risk
Following a number of fires in timber frame constructed properties a debate has now been opened as to whether this building method may be unsafe.
This traditional form of building construction is currently the most popular method for social housing in the United Kingdom. However, government statistics have only gone on to prove what fire safety specialist feared, that this housing is a potential fire risk to those who live in them.
It has been found that fires at flats which are built using this method have more chance of spreading than other housing types.
The technical director of the Fire Protection Association, Jim Glockling, has warned that it is impossible to know the scale of the issue, although he expects that it could be affecting thousands of people living in flats.
He added:
“Often these blocks are put up four at a time. When we investigate a fire and find a construction fault in one, can we assume the other three buildings are perfect? Possibly not. They might need a close look too.”
Bob Neill, the fire minister, said of these concerns:
“We take fire safety very seriously and are aware of the questions raised about timber-framed buildings. The new government is listening to the public’s concerns carefully and will tackle them head-on.
“However, I also want to reassure people that on the whole we have a very good record in this country of making our buildings safe and reducing fire deaths.”
Yorkshire fire hydrant thefts causing concern for fire service
The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have warned of the dangers over low fire hydrant levels as firms continue to steal water from this source.
By illegally siphoning off water for use in cleaning windows, sweeping the roads or drain jetting, these workers are putting people’s lives at risk.
Yorkshire Water has reported that millions of litres of water had been tapped into during July, which was higher than ever.
This crime of taking water supplies from these hydrants has been condemned by the fire service as this makes it much harder to respond to emergency situations.
Ian Bitcon, of the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said:
“Our front-line appliances carry adequate water to deal with the early stages of fire, and to extinguish most fires, but we rely on hydrants to support our work.
“Anyone interfering with or vandalising a hydrant is putting lives directly at risk.”
Yorkshire Water admits that the situation has been made worse due to the dry weather experienced in the UK this summer in addition to harsh business trading conditions which has seen the crime become much more widespread.
Yorkshire Water’s Melanie Dawson said:
“We want [the thieves] to know their actions can have extremely serious consequences.
“Not only do they risk damaging fire hydrants, and consequently endangering human lives, but their actions can also lead to water discolouration or even temporary loss of supply, which at its worse can affect thousands of people.”
New proposals to Cumbria fire service come under attack
The planned changes put forward by the fire service in Cumbria has been criticised by firefighters in the area as they expect these cuts to affect their ability to respond to flood emergencies.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has reacted in anger to the proposals which would see reduced numbers of fire crews, and could lead to some rescue vehicles to be rendered unavailable. The Major Rescue Vehicle (MRV) and Aerial Ladder Platforms (ALPs) require a minimum number of firefighters to operate them at the same time.
Mally Hind, the FBU brigade secretary, said:
“This ill thought out proposal is based purely on cost and not on risk.
“It’s not that many weeks ago that new Prime Minister David Cameron said there would be no cuts to front-line services. Yet here we are looking at the loss of eight firefighter posts.
“If this proposal is allowed to go ahead, there will be a detrimental effect on public safety.”
These fears have been disputed by the Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service as they insist that they have the resources to cope with the changes.
The chief fire officer of the service, Dominic Harrison, has revealed that any reductions in the number of firefighters would be addressed and that additional resources could be made available when needed.