Howarth Fire Station

One of the "concessions" made by the West Yorkshire Fire Authority was to support Haworth Parish Councils expression of interest in maintaining the station as a community asset,

that is run by and for the local community. 

Below are  some minutes of the meeting sent to us by John Moak of the Fire Brigades Union.

Councilor John Huxley chaired the meeting(JH)

JH outlined the WYFRS IRMP  and indicated that meetings had taken place between the deputy chief fire officer and the council. 

Because of these meetings the closure of Haworth Fire Station had been deferred for a period of two years.

This was to enable the Parish Council to carry out a feasibility study and meet with key partners.

WYFRS had discussed the lease /sale of the building, loan of equipment and training.

The idea of an emergency response centre was mentioned and intention of contacting the Police,Calder valley mountain rescue and the ambulance service.

Both  Keighley and Oxenhope councils had been contacted..

JH indicated that if the villagers present agreed, a group was to be formed that would report back by 1-12-13 on whether or not the project was a feasible one.

Some of the questions the group would seek answers to would be-

Will there be enough volunteers of trained personnel,

The financial cost, we may all have to share.

The Haworth Fire station personnel to be consulted ASAP

Chris Hopkins MP, the Prime Minister and Eric Pickles MP all to be contacted.

 JH  This is our idea, if we don’t do something, the fire cover will be reduced..

 Councillor Angel ... The fire cover is in our hands

Councillor........... It will cost

Councilor Mitchell(Oakworth) Explained that some of his remote hamlets were also covered by Haworth and he pledged his full support.

Public.....Where is the funding going to come from ?

JH......... I see the funding coming from Chris Hopkins ,government, localism and the big society

We have to do something.

Public Insurance for the Fire fighters would have to be linked to WYFRS.

We are not allowed to have a fire service, that’s why we are going for a first responder service..

Private fire services will be looked at as will industrial fire services.

Councillor Hill We have a two year reprieve for the feasibility study, no one has done this before, and we have to explore the feasibility. If we explore the possibilities we will find out yes or no.

JH  Indicated that it would probably take a village referendum to make the final decision.

C.Hill    Lets get the options on the table

Public........ What were the other options

JH ..... We have to talk to Bradford council

Public( Our own Joe O'Keefe ) explained the reality of the situation, you will not be getting trained Breathing apparatus wearers to carry out rescues your volunteers will probably only be qualified to squirt water at the job.

The council should be applauded but please channel your efforts in to trying to save what you have got now

Public£350,000 the cost of Haworth Fire Station, how many residents do we have, we have to explore ways of raising extra revenue 

Councilor R Our police station closed but we got it back, if we can hang on to the building we may get something back..

Public .....outlined the skills of the job, and that it was right that you were concerned, please fight for your service and your pump.

JH Indicated that the time had come for the villagers to make their decision.

Are you prepared to let us form a group to explore the possibility and also the possibility of a referendum?

Public A unanimous vote of Yes,

Public reminded the group of the importance of keeping the infrastructure.

Kath indicated that the Haworth appliance had been busy of late

You should be applauded, a round of applause followed.

..........................................................................................................................................................

But what about the station cat at Howarth - will she be considered in the "fursability study" ?

Howarth Station Cat - homeless? 

If you would like more background information about Howarth please click HERE

Response time are available HERE

If you are interested in the "bigger picture" of fire cuts across the UK please read Save Our Fire Service - its not just West Yorkshire these cuts will affect - the site is available HERE

For more information about West Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union, please click  HERE 

Its About Time ..........

IT'S ABOUT TIME.....

Although we appreciate it is sometimes not appropriate to speed read documents or jump to hasty conclusions, sometimes it is necessary.
Below are a few cut and pastes from a document written by the Fire Brigades Union - called "Its About Time".   The full document is available Here - from the FBU reports pages  - we STRONGLY recommend you read the entire document. It's quite an eye opener.

In 2009, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) published a report called Review of Fire and Rescue Service response times: Fire Research Series 1/2009.

The authors of the report used the Fire Service Emergency Cover toolkit (FSEC) to predict the effect of increased response times.

·        13 additional fatalities in dwelling and other building fires each year;

·        possibly 65 additional deaths in road traffic collisions (RTCs); and

·        an £85m increase in other buildings fire damage.

“Deaths offset”

The report expressed no remorse for 13 fire deaths caused by increased attendance times. It showed no suggestion of alarm that a deterioration of performance has left 13 people dead in 2006 (in England) who would not have died in 1996.

Instead, the report concluded that: “Annual dwelling fire fatalities fell by 142 between 1996 and 2006. This suggests that the impact of increased response times on dwelling fire deaths has been more than offset by other factors such as community fire safety, between 1996 and 2006.”

In other words, 13 people might have died in fires who might otherwise have been saved, but it’s as though it doesn’t matter because the primary focus of the fire service, community fire safety, saved 142 people. The net effect is that 129 fewer people die each year.

To the consternation of the FBU, the message sent out by this report is that there is no urgency attached to attending fires, even those where people need rescuing. As long as community fire safety is preventing fires from starting in 11 houses, so their “theory” goes, it doesn’t matter if someone dies when a fire starts in a twelfth house. Their death has been “offset”.

“80% already dead”

why it is now taking longer for fire services to respond to fires and other emergencies. On behalf of CLG, senior official Chris Wormald replied: “Around 80 per cent of fire deaths have already happened at the point at which the fire brigade is called. The actual effect of response times on the death rate is really comparatively small.”

 The postcode lottery

It is important to remember that the difference  between fire cover in cities and that in villages could be explained as the outcome of a reasonably practicable response to the overall risk in each location. However, a person living in a domestic dwelling in one part of the country has every right to expect their 999 call to be treated just as importantly as one from another person in similar accommodation elsewhere.

We could go on  - but it just goes to show we are right........ firecutscostlives.