Unmanned fire stations ?!

[Open_Gee]

I think the term is a retained fireman-

My Grandad was one back in the 40's & 50's so it's been happening a hell of a long time- Back then they had a fire bell in the house and you had to live within 3-4 mins of the station. When it went off they would hot foot it to the station and then attend whatever problem they had been called out for.

[Emperor Fabulous]

Well, you live and learn ! I had always been under the impression that fire stations had dorms and staff in 24h attendance.

But then.... my only knowledge of the fire service is what I learned from this in my youth...

[RocknRollDave]

I caught part of a maths-type TV programme years back (presumably Open University, but I forget. I'm rubbish with maths and can only imagine the reason I saw as much of it as I did is that I'm equally as bad with remote control location), where they were saying there needs to be a fire station within so many minutes of every property in such and such an area and then showed the formulae and whatnot to work out where the stations would be best situated.

I'm afraid in my naivety at the time I presumed this was actually how things worked in real life and not just as a maths exercise. I guess in truth money talks louder than maths.

[frankus]

I guess in truth money talks louder than maths.

Genius. So, money talks louder than maths.

By that chalk £2.33 talks louder than £1M because £2.33 is more monier..

[RocknRollDave]

Genius. So, money talks louder than maths.

By that chalk £2.33 talks louder than £1M because £2.33 is more monier..

Of course. In the first instance there is two pounds AND thirty three pee! In the second, there's only ONE million pounds.

Everyone knows that if there's more coins, it's more money, no..?

[bertie]

However, I'm not happy that this method of working seems to have crept into our emergency services.

eh ? my home town has had an unmanned fire station since and before I was born.................all manned by local volunteers, very much not uncommon practice.

[hungrymark]

Has anybody else noticed that they've taken all the guns off of our policemen? Fucking so-called austerity I blame, what are we going to do when we get a big shoot-up like on Heat? I can't believe this is happening to me

[folkyblokey]

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.

Try living in some areas of Scotland. In my home town, that's all we've ever had.

[roundthebend]

Have I misread the OP....you say that after the fire brigade left that you saw flames. So, has it burned itself out now?

[holnrew]

I saw three fire stations attending an emergency earlier today, no fire and they all stayed in the vehicles, blocking a bus.