SCUMGATE

We have over the many months we have written this blog on occasions been deeply shocked (and disappointed) by the way senior staff in the Fire and Rescue Services have acted.

CFO's shaking hands with scabs returning to HQ, apparently the evidence of that was  wiped from the hard drive?  Not!!!

Managers, watched by HR and an ACO  rifling through handbags when its owner leaves the room and not forgetting  West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue  tracking employees cars and using private investigators to spy on their staff,  the money paid out spying would have paid a fire fighters wages for nearly 6 months! 

And last but most certainly not least we hear tonight that the Brigade Secretary of West Yorkshire FBU has been  told that prior to periods of industrial action  he cannot use his office at FSHQ.  That really is a lock out if ever there was one.

But today our focus has been  on another area of the country - Surrey,   where in a video aptly named URSCUM   you can (allegedly) clearly hear  CFO Russell Pearson of Surrey Fire and Rescue  refer to his striking staff  as scum. 

Chief Fire Officers are not born they are made - climbing the ranks by fair means or foul to end up earning offensively high salaries. You would think they would retain some of the integrity of the operational staff they manage - sadly not  as this video below clear demonstrates.

Ladies and Gentlemen we present SCUMGATE ..... and like it says "make up your own mind" And when you have watched it,  why not send Surrey Fire and Rescue an email to tell them how disgusted you are by clicking  HERE  and using  their compliments and complaints form for a COMPLAINT...





We sincerely hope that tonight a certain Chief Fire Officer  is writing their letter of resignation and compiling an extremely public apology to his staff.

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.   

Time to be very selfish ................

To the many people who read this blog - the majority of whom support the Fire Brigades Union, it is time to be called to

ACTION

 

 

 

Tomorrow we will be announcing the details of  a virtual demonstration in support of the FBU and more importantly those in the FBU who stand up, speak out and are currently being investigated by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue . Our recent post got over 18,000 views in 24 hrs. For tomorrows post we need that 18,000 views  and many, many more.

 

Although we appreciate that many who are being investigated are not willing to be involved in a public way Fire Fighter and FBU activist Lee Indriks has nailed his colours to the mast  and publicly stated he is being investigated for liking a picture on Facebook. And guess what has happened? He is now being investigated for speaking publicly about what is happening to him.

Lee Indriks - Social Media Martyr
West Yorks FBU  

 

 

 

It is time to demonstrate to Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling that the persecution and prevention of free speech will not be tolerated.

 

 

 

Watch this Space

 

 

and  in order to be prepared for tomorrow - get out your mobile and take a selfie on your phone. You are going to need it.

 

West Yorks FCDA - we look forward to recording YOU hitting our site tomorrow. :-)   (google analytics is a wonderful thing)

 

 

 



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The SS - Socialmedia Surveillance at WYFRS

We have been aware for well over a year now that West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue watch our  FCCL and personal FaceBook Pages.   My personal favourite was Group Manager Richard Veti saying to the then Brigade Membership Secretary David Williams "We know what sort of books she reads"  At the time Dave thought we had been rumbled in regard of our attempt to get Gipton Fire Station listed as I was reading books about the history of the fire service and volumes of old watch minutes. But what he actually meant was he had read a blog I had written about my local book club reading "50 Shades of Grey"  Then Andy Killingbeck an ill health  retired firefighter  was dragged in for a pension review and WYFRS cited articles on facebook  as a reason they considered him now fit for work.......... and refused to give the names of officers that had "brought it to managements attention" but as that is still under investigation we cant say much about it. It also came into the public domain that WYFRS had actually ordered surveillance on employees by private investigation companies and that Anthea Orchards car had a tracking device attached to it. And this is the stuff we know about !!!!!! What has gone on that has been undiscovered?

When FCCL was just getting into full swing in November 2012 and get loads of hits WYFRS  reissued their Social Media Policy to all staff. So we have always known we have been watched ......................................

BUT RECENTLY WE HAVE BECOME CONCERNED THAT IT HAS GOT OUT OF HAND

 

 

We have had it confirmed that several  serving employees a(and high profile FBU members) are been investigated and potentially disciplined because they have been spotted "liking" pictures and / or articles on Facebook. A header used on West Yorkshire Fire Brigades Unions Facebook page is one of the offending pictures that has been "liked".

 

 

 

 

There is also the issue of picket lines - like many other Fire and Rescue Services WYFRS have banned the wearing of tunics whilst on picket lines and also banned the lighting of braziers. Now correct me if I am wrong - if ANYBODY knows how to supervise a lit  brazier a set of competent and qualified firefighters are probably as good as it gets.

 

 

So we would like you to share this handy information leaflet below- to show your disgust at the underhand and most likely illegal practise of monitoring FBU members social media postings. Freedom of Expression is enshrined in European Law.

 

 

Want to be disciplined ?  Wear your tunic and light a (controlled) fire.
Then blog, facebook and tweet and wait for the phone call from Simon P and Co.

 

 

The Strike

We here at FCCL will be supporting the

Fire Brigades Union Strike Tomorrow.

That's a bit of a "No Shit Sherlock" moment for most of our readers.

 

 

 

 

 

But it's because we don't want to see this happen

 

 

 

 

We wish everybody who is withdrawing their labour for four hours tomorrow the very best of ........

well we would say luck but we reckon the scab labour that is being brought in as

cover will need all of that. 

 

 

 

 

Near Miss in Bingley !!

On Friday evening we read in the Telegraph and Argus that an elderly woman was rescued from a burning flat in “medium risk” Bingley. By Saturday,  we had discovered quite how burnt she nearly was!    It was actually reported on the WYFRS incident log an adult female was rescued by 105 ladder, the bit they missed out was by the time the first pump got there the elderly lady was hanging out of the window!

Courtesy of Telegraph and Argus

 

 

 

 

Bingley was (obviously) the nearest station to the incident BUT they were off practising their water training so weren’t available. The nearest stations to Bingley are Shipley, Fairweather Green and Keighley.

Bingley could have got there in less than 2 minutes (as per RAC route finder) but as we have said, the pump wasn’t available.

 

The pumps deployed were from :
 

Bradford (7 miles away, 19 mins normal driving)
Keighley (3.8 miles away, 7 mins normal driving)
Leeds (a whopping 13.7 miles away and 33 minutes normal driving)
Shipley* (2.6 miles, 7 mins normal driving)
and Idle* (2.7 miles and 7 minutes normal driving)

*Don’t forget Shipley and Idle are both to close under the IRMP approved in 2011and will merge and lose a pump.
Keighley has already lost a pump earlier this year. Fairweather Green is also to close.

Also remember if it is a “person reported” incident

it needs the attendance of a

minimum of THREE PUMPS!

BUT IT GETS WORSE………………. They needed an aerial ladder platform (ALP).

 

Under normal circumstances this would have been provided by Bradford BUT required the tactic known as “cross jumping” where a crew drive back to the station, hop off the “bog standard” pump and drive away again in the ALP (or in some cases CARP- combined aerial rescue pump) but Bradford did not have a qualified driver for the ALP, so had to call for assistance from Leeds over 13.7 miles away. We have quite a lot to say about ALP and CARPs but will save that for another day.

This incident brings together things

we have talked about in the past year at FCCL.

Reducing pump (and fire fighter) numbers is foolish  as when the need arises there are insufficient pumps to attend an  incident within a decent response time – the gold standard being 6 mins. Less pumps and crews will inevitably mean that fire fighters however professional will  be tempted to take risks.

We assume the fire fighter who went up the ladder and rescued the elderly lady was physically fit and  under 55 and operationally fit.  With the proposed “reforms” that may soon not be the case. As well as insufficient engines you may end up with a rescue,  such as was executed on Friday resulting in the ending of somebodies operational career. Injuries increase with age and as WYFRS hasn’t recruited for many years, fire fighters are getting older with no young blood coming through the ranks. The fire fighter going up that ladder is getter older............

And just a thought………….. IF  the old lady had jumped, broken her back and died she wouldn’t feature in the death column of the fire statistics. Only if you die IN A FIRE  do you feature. Sad but True.

There is no mention on the incident logs of a working, disabled or not fitted smoke alarm. Bradford Areas  strategic plan states it is to


"deliver a proactive fire prevention and protection programme. Stopping fires before they occur is our first priority. To date, our actions have delivered significant success and we want to build upon this. We believe our successful community safety strategy lies in the links we maintain with our partners and we plan to strengthen and increase these to deliver a professional and resilient emergency response service"

We here at FCCL aren't convinced this is so. Neither are we optimistic about their claims to provide

 

"effective and ethical governance and achieve value for money in managing resources".

Value for money, managing resources -

no mention of saving lives , just money !

We think WYFRS had a very miss on Friday ………………

Happy Birthday to Us !

It is an important day for us here at FCCL.

It is a year to the day since we started blogging!

And before we doing anything else we have to say a BIG THANK YOU to the very kind person who sent flowers to Sarah's office this morning. We wrongly assumed  they were from the FBU and tried to say thank you, but apart from a Happy 1st Birthday tag there was no name.  Tomorrow evening we will place them on the Fire Fighters Memorial in Burley, Leeds  in recognition of all the fire fighters who have died carrying out their duties and serving the public without thought for their personal safety but for now they have pride of place in the house.



I think most people know why we started this blog. In December 2011 after fighting hard to try and save both Gipton and Stanks Fire Stations from closure in East Leeds  we read with incredulity the fact that WYFRS were publicly crowing that the IRMP Consultation Proposals pages of their website had had 1,750 hits. We as  the community and indeed the FBU concurred with us, that for 12 weeks of consultation it was pathetic, especially as many WYFRS staff would have taken a peek to see exactly what the website said from their computers at home. FCCL itself had been on the site from at least 5 different IP addresses.

1750 works out at approx  21 hits a day

for an area that has over a million residents!

Pathetic!

So in September 2012 when the next round of cuts consultation was announced, we decided to set up a little experiment to TRY and get 1751 hits to prove to the public how much positive spin WYFRS put on their literature. A little blog with at that time no publicity apart from a few postings in the comments section of the local newspapers.  (we didn't set up our facebook page till later in September).

In the three months of consultation in 2012  the FCCL blog got 41,0001 views. 

We would like to share with you some of our vital statistics to date;

102,480 hits as of 7pm this evening.

Wednesday  7th November 2012 was our best ever day with over 5,500 hits which was triggered by retired Firefighter Joe O'Keefe - Morals don't pay the mortgage post. 

Our Top Three locations are

1. Leeds
2. London (which is indicative of  smart phone usage)
3. Cleckheaton 


Our Top Three Service Providers are

1. IP Pools
2. Business static locations
3.Sky

and way down at  No 53  - West Yorkshire Fire and Civil Defence Authority which has visited us 34  times. The last being earlier today (sorry we didn't update the blog in time for you to see).

BUT THE THING WE ARE PROUDEST

 OF IS OUR

BOUNCE RATE  =   14.98%

Most websites expect to get a bounce rate of at least 40% . We have all done it - that "whoops that's not the site we expected"  when you  jump straight off a website because it is the wrong one. A bounce rate of 14.98%   makes us the envy of our friends in the IT world. (and we work in IT remember)  In fact in November 2012 it was less than 6% and even in the wilderness months of January / February  never went past 20%.

 FCCL is without a doubt attracting
its' target audience!


Mind you we knew from day two (and only 56 hits) we were onto a winner. But more about that tomorrow when we will tell you about a very unusual phone call from Hannah Stoneman of WYFRS and follow up emails from CFO Pilling.


BUT AS ALWAYS WE WILL LEAVE THE BEST TILL LAST.....   


We owe so many people THANK YOU's


David Williams of the West Yorks FBU

and all of the WYFBU  team who have taken a great deal of stick for what we have done.


Andy Killingbeck - retired Gipton Fire fighter  who even though he wasn't and isn't responsible for FCCL has undergone a malicious pension review because of FCCL.

All at South Yorks FBU - and their comrades in Doncaster who made us very welcome.


Joe O'Keefe (retired fire fighter Keighley) who has fought hard to bring the truth into the public domain.


Anthea Orchard - ex WYFRS employee 


And perhaps the biggest THANK YOU OF ALL  needs to go to all the people who help us that we cannot ever name.

Without your help this  site would not be as successful
 as it has been.

We look forward to our next 365 days of blogging.