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!) 

Just a Quickie !!!!!!!

To let you know we have today asked for an update of the WYFRS incident log for the period between 

 2nd  - 9th November 2012.

This is allegedly WYFRS busiest time of the year ................. BUT some newspaper reports say its been very quiet and others that it was  busy on bonfire night. So we here at FCCL intend to find out the truth................. as we can compare it with last years data.

Sadly we can only assume that as nothing was posted for an entire week the news is not as rosy as they would wish the public to believe.

We sincerely look forward to being

WRONG

BUT

This morning  we read of a fire fatality and as yet no mention of it has appeared on incident log.  Sadly a woman died in a flat fire in West Park in the early hours of this morning. Tenders from Moortown and Cookridge attended. (both closing incidentally)

We offer our sincere condolences to her family. The article in the Yorkshire Evening Post is available HERE

BUT

We cant help but wonder how the incident will be logged  as we are hearing stories of fires being misrecorded,  as  now to record a fire as "deliberate"  a fire investigation officer has to attend to confirm it. 

When did this happen as normally it is left to the PROFESSIONAL discretion of the officer in charge ?

What a brilliant way to massage figures!!!!!!!


Anyway as usual if you would like to take part in the process of consultation  please see the details below. And if you would like to read what constitutes a "stakeholder" in the engagement process click HERE 

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

Click HERE  to view the consultation documents.

You can also 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

Back to Back - Basics

BACK TO BACK  - BASICS

Tonight we will concentrate on one type of incident - fires in back to back houses.

On the 23rd September there was a back to back house fire in  West Bowling Bradford. Which at strangely enough were BOTH appliances from Odsal. Why strange ? Because the proposals currently under consultation seem to think just one will be sufficient in future years.

And to quote the plans

"The areas covered by Odsal fire station are classified as very high risk overall but the distribution of risk varies in each ward and ranges from very high to very low"  

What we have noticed in all of the documents in respect of the IRMP is that nowhere in them do they say anything about the types of properties in an area - it is all just varying degrees of risk.

Without a doubt back to back houses are very high risk indeed, they were  BANNED in the early part of the 20th Century as they were considered a danger to life if they caught fire. East End Park and Harehills  in Inner East leeds have the highest concentrations of Back to Backs in Europe, which is a scary as soon the stations covering the area are going to be further away. And Gipton, Stanks, Moortown, Hunslet  and Garforth are all to close. And also they tend to be inhabited by poorer sections of the community which again significantly  increases the risk of fire.
You could have several smoke alarms in these types of houses but the bottom line is they only have one door - so if the fire is blocking your exit  you are basically  STUFFED. That is until of course a fire fighter comes along to rescue you. With increased  reponse times, less appliances and of course you would have to be blind (or very rich and naive maybe!) not to have noticed poverty is increasing at an alarming rate and you have many accidents waiting to happen.


It  is basic physics - heat rises as does smoke and 9/10  its the smoke that kills you way, way before the fire does.

And in a back to back house - the only way is up when the heat is on!



Man dies in house fire in Chapeltown Leeds

Sadly we have to report that an elderly man died in a house fire in Chapeltown  Leeds earlier today. We offer our sincere condolences to his family.

But it does serve to demonstrate that FIRE KILLS and that it was crews from both Gipton and Moortown that turned out. As the new proposals currently on the table  are to close Moortown and Giptons fate has already been decided  (by our local politicians) we can't help but wonder what will happen in the coming years. 

the full report fromthe evening news can be found here Fire Kills in Leeds

If you wish to help us oppose these cuts in provision please contact us at firecutscostlives@gmail.com.