Cambridgeshire firefighters protest over on-call crew numbers as Princess Royal opens fire station
Firefighters took to the streets in protest at what they say is a “dangerous” reduction to on-call fire crews in Cambridgeshire.
The members of the Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU) protested during the official opening of Huntingdon Fire Station and Service Training Centre by the Princess Royal on Wednesday (November 29).
The firefighters are concerned by a new policy, trialled since January, under which Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) has allowed the number of on-call firefighters attending incidents in Cambridgeshire to be reduced to three per crew.
But a minimum of five are needed to respond to incidents where lives are at risk, meaning a fire engine with only three firefighters on board must wait for back-up to arrive before it can properly and safely respond to life-threatening incidents.
The FBU says firefighters could face a "terrible decision" - wait outside a burning building, or risk their jobs and lives by going inside.
Mark Harriss, FBU Cambridgeshire brigade secretary, reiterated his concerns, saying: “Today, Cambridgeshire firefighters are making it clear that we won’t quietly accept public and firefighter safety being put at risk. A crew of three firefighters is not equipped to safely enter a burning building. No fire service should be putting their firefighters in this dangerous position.
“New fire stations and fire engines are useless without firefighters. We have lost around 12,000 firefighter posts in the UK since 2010. We need urgent investment and recruitment instead of firefighters’ lives being put on the line in this way. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service must start listening and end this dangerous policy now.”
Chief fire officer Chris Strickland has previously said: “We are not ‘cutting’ crew levels to three. We will always strive to have at least four and ideally five on a fire engine. However, we often have three firefighters available at on-call stations who can get to an incident in their local town or village quicker than the next nearest fire engine. In these situations, we are now allowing that fire engine to attend with a crew of three, backed up by the normal number of fire engines we would send to that incident.
“A crew of three on a fire engine is able to deal with many incidents quickly and safely, improving the service being provided to many rural areas.”
When the policy was initially announced last year, Mr Strickland explained that many rural towns and villages are covered by on-call fire stations, meaning firefighters carry pagers during the daily business and respond if they are alerted that there is an emergency.
“We struggle to recruit on-call firefighters – for a whole host of reasons – and often our rurally-based fire engines are deemed ‘unavailable for use’ as there are less than four firefighters available to crew them,” he said.
A fire service spokesperson added: “We do not send a crew of three from our wholetime crews as they are full-time and will always have a crew of at least four firefighters.”
