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

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.