Unmanned fire stations ?!
On the way home tonight, I passed through a neighbouring town and was a bit perturbed to find the centre engulfed in smoke. I could see the source of the smoke was at the rear of an ATS tyre place, so, being a dutiful citizen and upstanding member of the community, I rang the fire brigade. I parked outside the chinese just up the road and popped in to wait for my takeaway. Eight minutes later, the fire brigade whizz past. 'Eight minutes ? - they took their time' I thought, seeing as the station was only a few hundred metres from where I was.
Anyway, I got my chinese and headed home, detouring via the source of the smoke to see what was going on. Now I could see flames, but no fire engine. Obviously the firemen had decided it was ok and gone back. As I drove past the station, I could see it was in darkness and one car was just departing. Then it dawned on me.... they're not there 24h. Sure enough, I've just checked, and they operate the station like a lifeboat... they page everyone to come in and THEN they go to the fire. That's a bit strange for something that's needed immediately. Smells of cutback to me.
Thank god they don't do that with the ambulance service.
Anyway, the eight minutes seems bloody good now, considering they had to all drop what they were doing, get in their cars, drive to the station, get in their gear, etc etc. However, I'm not happy that this method of working seems to have crept into our emergency services.
You wait till they privatise it - they'll draw up an SLA and strive for 95% adherence instead of just funding it properly
All the emergency services are getting fucked - it's been coming in for a while now, and things are going to get worse - a lot worse!
Originally Posted by stickyfiddle
Taking arson to one side, has the risk of a fire occuring diminished with modern electrical appliances, wiring circuits and gas safety? If so, it could be a risk-assessment job. Less risk, ergo less need?
Fire people aren't needed all the time (unlike ambulance people)so I guess there is a point at which the likelihood of a call out is so low it may make no sense to pay for a staffed station. It's quite common practice and has been for years as I understand it.
I watched a documentary about the fire service once and some staff can expect never to attend a major fire in their whole careers.
Breeding mammals with insects is my personal bugbear.
That must be a real pisser for someone who joined up to fight fires, eh?
And yet we all have to pay car insurance - even though some of us will never be involved in an accident, or have our cars stolen or damaged..
A similar thing happened to us last year - we were on our way back from a gig, and a car flipped right in front of us, rolled a few times and hit a tree, when we were maybe a mile from home. The driver and passenger were unconscious, so we got them out of the car (which was on its side and really badly wrecked) and carried them to a safe distance because it was leaking petrol all over the place. Anyway, we called it in and tried to look after them as best we could under the circumstances.
Now, our town has ambulance, fire and police stations. Yet it took 45 minutes for police and and an ambulance crew to turn up - because that mile between us and the emergency services crossed a county border (just), the rules say it's not our town's problem and thus they had to travel from nearly 30 miles away. The passenger was in a really bad way - badly concussed, broken ribs, couldn't feel her arms and was having trouble breathing - but fortunately they'd managed to crash right in front of a doctor's house, so she came running out shortly afterwards and helped us with her.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure that 45 minutes does not constitute an emergency response.
Oh dear me. Many fire stations haven't been manned 24 hours for 40 years or more. They also tend not to get run like lifeboat stations. Where I live there are about five fire stations within 10 miles of where I live. They work a rota system. A couple of guys at my rugby club are fireman. They've hardly ever attended a fire. Most of their emergency work involves traffic accidents, pumping water, attending hazardous spills and so forth. They also have to spend more time training, especially with near safety gear and keep fit. Manning stations 24/7 is simply a drain on man power and ruins they family life.
The firestation in my home town (St Ives) is run with part-time firemen. I believe when they are on call they're only allowed to be 5 miles from the station (I was told many years ago). The ambulance station is (literally) a unit on the industrial estate, where they have a single ambulance and 2 crews, which is always manned.
like Kirk Hammett, but more talent and less guitars
Reply With Quote