West Mids Fire service cuts ‘will risk lives’

[dutchman]

It is claimed changes to the way firefighters work in the West Midlands will mean more deaths.



Firefighters in the West Midlands say more people will die because of cuts coming into force this week.

They’re effectively losing 96 positions because of changes to how they work, saving £2.85m over the next year.

They’ll spread workers thinner over their engines and appliances so that some won’t be fully staffed. For example an engine which used to have 5 staff inside might now operate with just 3.

Roger Moore from the West Midlands Firefighters’ union told us that might not be enough manpower to deal with a house fire: “If they were to attend a house fire, maybe staff would be expected to do minor things around the area preparing for another fire appliance to come.

“People would be at the scene screaming at our them asking why they’re not trying to rescue anyone. We’re actually putting ourselves at more risk to reduce numbers.”

The union also claims that the speed of response to emergencies could turn into a postcode lottery and that specialist rescue vehicles will take longer to arrive at some incidents including rescues from water, major road accidents and rescues from high rise buildings.

But in a statement, West Midlands Fire Service told us that forces all over the country have already made similar changes to the way they work, and it hasn’t affected their ability to deal with call outs:

“Analysis of the frequency and use of our fleet of fire engines and specialist rescue vehicles demonstrates that there is capacity to make significant cost savings, whilst maintaining high standards of performance.

“A number of the specialist vehicles deployed at stations in the West Midlands are only used on limited occasions, which indicated that there was the potential to reduce the number of Fire fighters required on duty at some stations.”

Chief Fire Officer, Vij Randeniya said: “We are committed to providing a world class fire and rescue service and making the West Midlands Safer and can only continue to do this if we manage our resources effectively.

“I am confident that these changes will not impact upon the high standard of service we deliver.”