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 

Fred Nietzsche & The Fire Brigade

Well,  we hear you say - what has Frederick Neitzsche got to do with Fire & Rescue ? 

The answer is simple........

LOTS 

Nietzsche was well known for his irony, which some would interpret as sarcasm, (i mean as if !!! )  ----- today we were reminded of one of Nietzsche's thinner works when we learnt that  there was a four pump mill fire in Haworth, which commenced at 6am and was closed at 12 noon. 

HAWORTH 

that nice low risk rural community where four pump fires are 

NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN 

BUT 

SADLY ACCIDENTS DO............

(if of course it is deemed to be an accident by the  powers that be) 

Today at 6am a fire broke out at  Lees Mill, Shepherd Croft, HAWORTH   in an area on the ground floor approx  15m x50m 

4 engines attended - Crews from Keighley, Haworth and Bingley attended 

and strangely enough the buildings postcode 

BD22 8RZ  

is deemed VERY LOW RISK 

 according to WYFRS !!!!

 and of course "post cuts"  two of the attending engines simply wouldn't be there to attend. Engines would 

have to be sent from further afield........ and of course  pre cuts, post cuts and during the cuts one thing will not change -

 a fire doubles in size every minute........ 

So to use Fredrick's words we at FCCL say 

"One day associated with our name  West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue  there will be a recollection of something frightful, of a fire like no other in West Yorkshire, and of the profoundest collision of conscience" * 

* please note we here at FCCL have fully working consciences -trouble is we are not sure  who at the fire authority and fire service have them. Because surely if there is a fire  they will all be very busy indeed blaming each other for the cuts in provision............. but by then it will be 

TOO LATE

Details of the fire can be found HERE at the Keighley News Website. ......... 

To read more of how businesses are affected by fire read our article "Businesses Down the Pan which is available HERE

A mill fire which devastated a Haworth Mill on Aug 14th 2010 demonstrates what fire can do to both buildings and businesses is below ............. seems fires in Haworth are not as rare as WYFRS seem to want us to believe. 

Business down the Pan!

A Lot has been made about House Fires, but what about your business? Most Businesses have Fire Alarms - 

Business Fires

Whilst numerically domestic fires dominate, the higher cost is carried by the commercial sector. The average cost of a commercial fire is £44,000; a figure that is often not covered completely by insurance. A sobering thought is that up to 80% of those businesses that experience a serious fire go out of business within 3 years of the fire.

And CFOA  the 

Chief Fire Officers Association

Said in 2006

Click HERE to access the CFOA website

"60% of private businesses affected by fire never recover"

But one of the ways that the Fire Brigade has reduced its calls is by not responding straight away to the Alarm. They await until a fire is confirmed or send an Officer in a car to investigate first! 

So Your Livelihood is up in Flames, your employees out of work.

Photo courtesy of the "Guardian" Newspaper

Have you been consulted about the cuts?

AS Part of the Consultation they are required to consult with Stakeholders within the County

Last year According to the Fire Authority Meeting Minutes

 "Approximately    80     stakeholders    were    identified   for   direct      contact,"

YES 

80 !!!!!!!! 

Only 80!!!!!!!

(and 2.2 million people live in West Yorkshire) 

Out of all the businesses within West Yorkshire!

FCCL would suggest that is not very many!

In a Report from 2009  

The

Association of Business Insurers  (ABI)

claimed

Record rise in the costs of fire damage
The cost of fire damage now stands at a record level according to research published today by the ABI. In the first half of 2009, insurers paid out £639 million - £3.6 million every day - for damage caused by fires. This is the highest half yearly figure ever, and follows on from last year’s record high level of fire claim costs.

HOW MUCH MORE WILL IT CONTINUE TO INCREASE?

 Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, said:

“The challenging economic climate is having a significant impact on the fire danger. While the numbers of fires may have been falling, the increase in large-scale fires is increasingly putting lives at risk, and puts more pressure on businesses in these already difficult trading times.”

This disturbing picture emerges from the ABI’s analysis of fire trends launched [sic] today (10 December) at a reception at the House of Commons. ‘Tackling Fire: A call for Action’ highlights that:

·         Fire damage claims in the first half of 2009 cost £639 million - £3.6 million each day. This follows on from the £1.3 billion fire losses in 2008, a 16% rise on 2007 and the most expensive year ever.
·         Between 2002 and 2008 the cost of the average fire claim for both commercial and domestic fires doubled, to £21,000 and £8,000 respectively.
·          Arson, which tends to increase during a recession, accounts for half of all commercial fires.

Socially deprived areas and schools are especially vulnerable  (Like most of the Inner city areas of West Yorkshire - FCCL Team): arson rates are 30 times higher in poorer areas.Twenty schools a week suffer an arson attack, disrupting the education of 90,000 schoolchildren, causing damage costing £65 million.
·          More open plan buildings, which allow more rapid spread of fire, and the increase in out of town developments, where fires can go for longer unnoticed, are among factors contributing to the doubling of fire costs since 2002."

Nick Starling added:

“Our analysis shows grounds for concern over fire trends. The continued recession is likely to have a significant impact on the number and cost of fires, and potentially on the number of fire-related deaths and injuries. That is why we urge the Government, working with other stakeholders including the fire service the police and insurers, to adopt our proposals to reduce the impact of fire.”

SO

Demand That You Are Consulted! 

If you are also confused by the Gobbledygook
 Contact the West Yorkshire FBU Officials on
 07967105224
for a clearer explanation!


Then once you have heard 

THE FACTS 
FROM OPERATIONAL FIREFIGHTERS 
(not management sat in their ivory tower) 

send YOUR VIEWS on the proposed cuts in West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Provision 

 send your comments via snail mail to 

Hannah Stoneman   or email her HERE

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Oakroyd Hall

Bradford Road

Birkenshaw

West Yorkshire

BD11 2DY

Click HERE  to view the consultation documents. 



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