Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Simon has an FRU - a little transit van !


This morning in the Yorkshire Post we read with interest of fire crews in South Yorkshire refusing to staff Small Incident Units - the equivalent of Fire Response Units (FRUs)  in West Yorkshire. The full article can be read HERE


Which got us thinking about FRU's and as we were in a poetic mood, look what the FCCL team came up with 
( we thinks its rather ...........good.)

Simon has an FRU
A little transit van
He drives it round the streets of Leeds
Put fires out – IF he can!!!

An FRU is very small
With not a lot of kit
No substitute for propers crews
In fact it’s really..............  (insert word of choice)

What use are FRU’s to me ?
I hear you cry with glee
They keep attendance figures low
(the’re creeping up you see)
For little fires they aren’t so bad
But little fires grow
And when they are so well alight,
a proper crew must go.


Once Simon took his FRU
To Moortown. long ago
I spoke to people crewing it
They told me  tales of woe
“It cannot put out car fires”
“This red vans such a farce”
So Simon take your FRU
And drive it up your..............(again please insert word of choice)

We here at firecutscostlives think
An FRU is wrong
When fat cats up in Birkenshaw
Have done their sums “pete tong”
And one day soon, someone will die
And then we all will say
“We told you Simon, did you hear
What firefighters say ?”

Reducing front line services
In such a viscous way, 
no smoke alarm or FRU
Will change what we all say.................

FIRE CUTS COST LIVES


We have before mentioned a paper written by  the Fire Brigades Union called "It's about time" it was ages ago,  in an article of the same name available HERE   The paper its self has a very interesting item on FRU's in which it talks of one based in South Yorkshire. 

The full document is available Here but for speed we enclose an excerpt below






However today has not been all doom and gloom - we are hearing reports from Morley that over 2,000 people have signed the objection to Morley Station Closing. 

The information is on the Morley Independents blogsite which is just a click away so please click here for the Morley Independents Blogspot



And as  this page has in the main been full of positives - if you want to see something that is so bad it's good click  Here to see Blaze Bear in action decorating his Christmas Tree - the continuity is truly dire (watch the fireplace!) 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is truly dire - but VERY funny - and makes a valid point too.

Sarah Covell said...

Thank you :-)

Unknown said...

I remember attending a "category 2 incident in the early hours of the morning. It had already spread to the flammables store of a car parts retailer when we arrived.

Luckily we were on a proper Fire Engine and not an FRU; we saved that building.

Fabrication.....Rhetoric.....Untruths

This whole consultation is FRU

Unknown said...

In the consultation as part of his foreword Chief Officer Pilling states;

" I am confident that the service will rise to the challenge and continue to make West Yorkshire safer"

SAFER........by definition, a higher level of safety than before.

Yet the document informs us of increased attendance times and no mention of any attendance time for the 2nd appliance.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, that is not safer that is less safe.

Before the last round of cuts, we were SAFER than we are now.

Cuts will not make us SAFER, cuts will cost lives.

At the last census there were 922,500 households in West Yorkshire.

In the consultation document it states that West Yorkshire is the lowest cost per head of all the metropolitan brigades at only £38.82.

Now I presume the double/treble dip recession is only temporary, therefore we need temporary measures to make West Yorkshire SAFER.

Increase the council tax precept for each household in West Yorkshire by 25 pence per week. That will raise £12 million pounds.

Only temporary though, like the 2.5% on VAT, the petrol and diesel prices and the 11% being added to utility bills next month.

When the country is back in the black, as Mr Osbourne assures us it will be, then we can remove the 25 pence "levy"

That won't make West Yorkshire "SAFER" but it will keep it safe.

WE have to pay for everything else, surely we MUST pay to keep our essential services

Anonymous said...

You can`t just increase the levy without legislation and spending a lot of money. But if the country is so strapped for cash why are millionaires getting at least a forty two thousand pound a year pay rise from next April ?

Unknown said...

Legislation can be rushed through when it suits the politicians.

If we want an effective Fire Service, we either have to get more money from Central Government or from the Council Tax payer.

We could sue those who wasted £469 million on the failed Regional Control debacle?

That would keep fire engines going for years

Anonymous said...

To the tune of London's Burning

Yorkshire burning, Yorkshire burning
Got no engines, got no engines
Dire dire, dire dire
Poor on water, poor on water

Simon's earning, Simon's earning
Sold the engines, sold the engines
Hire hire, hire hire
Tories bought yer, Tories bought yer

It's concerning, it's concerning
Stats cut engines, stats cut engines
Liar liar, liar liar
Give no quarter, give no quarter