Cambridgeshire firefighters to stage protest over three-person crews

Firefighters in Cambridgeshire will rally outside a meeting of the Cambridgeshire Fire Authority today (Wednesday) to protest against what they argue is a “dangerous” reduction to fire crews.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has allowed crews of three on-call firefighters to attend incidents in Cambridgeshire since January 1 – a move it says can aid initial response times, particularly in rural areas, with other crews then providing back-up.

But the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says a minimum of five are recommended to respond to incidents where lives are at risk.

Some 88 per cent of its members who are on-call firefighters in the region have signed a letter to the fire and rescue service opposing the changed crew numbers.

Mark Harriss, FBU Cambridgeshire brigade secretary, said: “Every second counts in an emergency, and fires can escalate quickly. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is putting lives at risk by sending out crews who are unable to rescue people safely. If your house is on fire, you expect a fire engine to be able to help. You don’t expect three firefighters to arrive and wait for back-up. The service is cutting our crews because we’re facing a crisis in recruitment and retention. Making the job far more dangerous and stressful will only make this worse. Fire service employers must put a stop to this dangerous practice and staff our service properly.”

A crew of three firefighters in a fire engine means one driver, one officer overseeing operations and one crew member. But the FBU points out that firefighters are trained as crews of four or five, with roles assigned within these larger teams.

The fire service, however, argues that smaller crews will mean that fire engines arrive at incidents “several minutes faster”.

The FBU claims there is no evidence a smaller crew reduces response times, particularly because a crew of three must wait for additional crews to arrive to tackle a serious incident.

Callum Hodgkin, FBU Cambridgeshire brigade organiser, said: “Firefighters sign up to protect people’s homes and save lives, not to watch buildings burn.

“Fires can change quickly, so you never know what an incident is like until you arrive at the scene. With a crew of three, you aren’t equipped to safely tackle a serious incident like a house fire. You must wait for another crew to arrive.

“Firefighters in these crews face an impossible choice: wait outside a burning house or risk their jobs and lives by going in. We are proud to serve our communities and feel a moral duty to save lives. Sooner or later, this policy will end in tragedy. No firefighter should ever be put in this position.”

Chief fire officer Chris Strickland 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.”

Since the policy was introduced, crews of three have responded to 175 incidents and were first on the scene at 89 of those. Second crews arrived an average of five minutes 19 seconds later. The policy has increased availability by 5.5 per cent.

When the policy was initially announced last year, Mr Strickland explained: “Our rural towns and villages are covered by on-call fire stations, so firefighters carry pagers, go about their daily business and if an emergency occurs in their area, their alerter goes off and they rush to the fire station to crew the fire engine.

“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. We therefore often send the next fully crewed fire engine that is available but that can be several miles away, increasing the time it takes for us to arrive. By allowing a crew of three to respond to all incident types, we can get a fire engine to incidents much quicker and the crew can either deal with the incident safely, or get everything ready to start dealing with the incident as soon as more resources arrive.”

The firefighters will protest at 1pm at New Shire Hall in Alconbury Weald.