Fire Service Report Reactions: Cuts Could Lead to Fire Increases

The Government-commissioned efficiency review of the future of the fire and rescue services undertaken by former chief fire and rescue adviser Sir Ken Knight has inevitably stirred up powerful responses from firefighters, managers, brigades, and unions.

The report says the services have failed to change, despite a 40 percent reduction in the number of incidents over the past decade, and suggests that fire services should be merged in order to save GB pound 200 million (US$302 million).

Click here to view Figure 1.

FBU
The report was regarded by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as nothing more than a justification for substantial cuts and consolidation in the fire and rescue services.

Its general secretary, Matt Wrack, said it was an attempt to cover up the fact that the FRS is being “slashed to pieces”, while frontline services are not being protected.

He said the review was “just a fig leaf for slashing our fire and rescue service to bits.” He cited the closure of fire stations, reduction of fire engines, and the fact that last year alone, 1200 firefighter jobs were cut. “All these cuts mean a poorer service for the public. They mean waiting longer for a fire engine if you have a fire or other emergency,” he stated.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, Wrack said that firefighters do not sit around waiting for calls. “Firefighters are out in their communities 24 hours a day to make them safer.” Full-time firefighters are available at a matter of seconds’ notice. “There is a huge difference in response times between that and mobilising someone from their home to drive to the fire station and put on their kit,” he argued.

London Fire Brigade
The review was officially backed by the London Fire Brigade. London fire commissioner Ron Dobson said that his brigade had already delivered on many of Knight’s recommendations, with savings of GB pound 66 million (US$99 million) since 2009 in London on non-operational staff — including reducing senior management — without having to lose any firefighters.

Shared service working had been introduced for some office-based staff, and the Brigade’s reserves reduced from GB pound 65m (US$68m) in 2007 to around GB pound 11m (US$16m) now.

CFOA
The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), which represents senior executives and fire service managers, also welcomed the opportunity the report gives to adapt the service.

However, the body said the FRS must remain prepared for major events, and that national resilience remains a critical role. Rejecting any possibility of privatisation, it said: “We firmly believe the emergency response role of the fire and rescue service should always remain a publicly provided service and that profit should never come before protection.”

CFOA also cautioned against the merger of fire services, as in Scotland, where eight regional fire services recently merged to create the Scottish Fire Service. “Any move towards a single FRS would have to be driven by central government, would require significant investment and would not necessarily produce significant savings.”

The TUC
Speaking at the FBU’s conference in Blackpool, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said the reduction in deaths from fire was “mostly down to the preventative work that firefighters are doing out in the community”.

“Cuts cost lives”, she said. “Every part of the country is at risk from this postcode lottery of cuts and closures”.

A fire safety officer
An anonymous community fire safety officer told the BBC that trying to make up the difference in the reduction of full-time firefighters by increasing the retained (on-call) sector “will only lead to massive property damages and the loss of life”.

He said:

Every month new retained firefighters are trained to replace those that resign, but many of the new recruits also resign, and so the process continues, leaving yo with a retained fire service with little experience.

Since the ’80s, the retained side of the fire service has been struggling, because fewer people work shifts now, so there are fewer people who are able to give cover during the day.

This has meant that a large proportion of the retained stations are off-the-run during the day, with the obvious problems of the nearest fire engine being up to 20 minutes away.

Secondly, retained firefighters can take up to 11 minutes to get out of the station, by the time the crew has arrived and dressed and is ready to leave, compared to about two minutes for full-time crew. That delay can have an impact on the severity of the fire by the time you reach it.

A retained firefighter
But a 20-year on-call firefighter for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service agreed with Sir Ken’s comments on the use of retained firefighters. “They should use more retained firefighters,” he said, pointing out that the recruitment process is “chaotic”, and done by word-of mouth.

“I think the service does need a shake-up and it’s high time they had a review. It should be run as a business and made more efficient,” he urged.

The anonymous firefighter suggested that rather than reducing the number of staff, training should recognised across fire authorities. “They waste time sending you on their own courses and paying for your time to go there as well”, he remarked.

Digging deeper
According to The Guardian’s Datablog, just because fewer fires are being dealt with, it doesn’t necessarily mean that cuts need to be made. Between April and September 2012, fire and rescue services attended 69,400 non-fire incidents, which often require different skills and equipment.

Some of these, such as the rescue of people, animal assistance incidents, and lift releases, have declined — but several of these incident types, such as flooding (up 75 percent), have increased. The blog cautions against basing future risk levels on past ones, since the UK’s weather is becoming harder to predict.

“It is also entirely possible that the preventative work carried out by fire services is a contributor to falling numbers of fires — and so cuts could lead to increases,” it concludes.