Seasons Greetings

It's not so often we are so quiet for so long,  but every so often the day job has take precedent for a while.

But, as we here at FCCL HQ have had a new influx of staff (whoopee) and we are also starting to wind down towards the Christmas  holiday period, grateful that we don't work shifts in the emergency services, it is time to offer our seasons greetings to everybody!

FCCL Magic Pixie 

HOW  do you send a card to the thousands of people that support
our pages ?  We do confess we struggled for a while to sort out the logistics and after Santa stubbornly refused to assist  (allegedly our request breached his terms and conditions) a magic pixie emailed us  the perfect solution.


Cheers Magic Pixie we are extremely grateful.

All you have to do is  download the image below, print it - fold it into 4 and pop it proudly on your mantelpiece. 
(you could of course tart it up a bit with the application of some glue and glitter 
- we know some of you like a bit of "bling" )

But please do not forget that at this time of year the only thing you should be setting light to is your Christmas pudding so  we include a couple of videos of our favourite bear  as a timely reminders that  FIRE KILLS and has no respect for what time of year it is.






And our personal favourite - 

Blaze Bear Cooks Christmas Dinner - the response time is amazing and they didn't send an FRU - which we understand is the protocol for a "bears reported" incident.   

Officers - 1 Firefighters - Nil

 

Righty before you read anymore - watch this video

Regardless of whatever South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue try to convince you about response times,  you have THREE MINUTES to evacuate your house if  you have a fire. 

 Fire and Rescue response times matter !

Scared................Concerned ............Frightened .................  GOOD         so you should be 

FIRE KILLS  - and you will never ever see a smoke alarm rescue somebody 

from a burning building. That is a fire fighters job, some would say a vocation. 

BUT 

the Karma Fairy has been waving her wand again and  as we start to blog about South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue the  news  is full of incidents  that have over the past few days stretched South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to breaking point. 

On the 29th May  there was an explosion  in Dundas Road, Tinsley, Sheffield. 

At approximately 9am Agostinho Jesus went to leave his property when a huge explosion ripped through the house.  Mr Jesus describes the incident on the BBC website here and thought he was burning alive!  

Courtesy of the BBC

4 pumps and support vehicles  attended that incident, including those from the local station Darnell which has been earmarked for closure in this years rounds of cuts in provision

Retained staff had to be brought in to crew resilience pumps there as South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue were so stretched that day. 

The incident made the national news, it was on several times during the day. And if you had looked very closely at the screen you might have seen something  to shock you. ........

Even though the incident commenced at 9am and went on until 8pm in the evening - the fire fighters on duty remained the same.   The officers changed though,  i bet you cant guess when it was .............

 A)  Tea time  ?

  B) Lunchtime  ?  

Yes you guessed it -  the firefighters (the ones who do the dirty dangerous work) didn't get relieved at all, but the officers were, just in time for lunch.  

We bet the Chief Fire Officer was just relieved there 

wasn't another major incident that day !

BUT ONLY TWO DAYS LATER .......................

In the early hours of  June 1st  fire crews were called to Cow House Lane, Doncaster . The fire was in a yard used to store pallets. The alarm was raised at approx  1.30am . 

Now  I know I am not an expert - but having seen many bonfires that consist in the main of  (yes you guessed it) 

WOODEN PALLETS  

even I,  a rank amateur  would probably on balance 

if I had received a 999 call saying 

 would have hedged my bets and sent a couple of engines 

 ( just to be on the safe side )

BUT NO  - South Yorkshire  FRS in line with their "challenging policy" sent just the one engine on a recce !

Oh to be a fly on the wall when they rang back for assistance!

And although on the SYFRS site as a separate incident, we are assured that  the fire spread to a nearby industrial park. At the height of the incident over 70 firefighters were involved and engines had to be brought in from West Yorkshire. 

Courtesy of SYFRS 

And at 9am the same day   -  another large fire  this time in Sheffield attended by 5 pumps and 25 fire fighters at a rubber recycling plant in Monckton. 

Fires such as these can happen at anytime - as CFO Jamie Courtney said only last week, "we can reduce the chances of a fire with good fire prevention  BUT we cant reduce the severity once it takes place"  

Please oppose the cuts in provision in South Yorkshire.

If you wish to voice your opposition please use the link HERE to take you to the SYFRS website 

OR TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE  CONSULATION SITE  Just CLICK HERE