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Atherstone on stour fire: Four firefighters confirmed dead

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service has confirmed that four firefighters have died, following the warehouse fire at Atherstone-on-Stour on Friday 2 November 2007.

The bodies of the three missing firefighters were recovered on Tuesday 6 November 2007.
The deceased are:

Ian Reid, aged 44, Stratford upon Avon FS
John Averis, aged 27, Stratford upon Avon FS
Ashley Stephens, aged 21, Alcester FS
Darren Yates-Badley, aged 24, Alcester FS

On the evening of Tuesday 6 November the families and more than 200 emergency service personnel stood in silent respect in a guard of honour as the bodies of John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley were taken from the fire ravaged warehouse in Atherstone-on-Stour.

A guard of honour from members of all emergency services lined the road as the three firefighters were taken from the scene.

As a mark of respect, all heads were bowed as the vehicles passed. Standard bearers from Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service led the procession. All work came to a standstill and a minute's silence was held.

The fire started on Friday evening and Ian Reid was pulled from the building that night, but was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. His three colleagues were missing in the building until their bodies were recovered on Tuesday 6 November.

Said Tom Conn, Warwickshire FBU brigade secretary, speaking on behalf of Warwickshire brigade committee:

“It is difficult to find the words to express just how affected we all are by the tragic deaths on duty of firefighters Ian Reid, John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley.

“They will be sorely missed by their colleagues at Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service and in particular at Stratford upon Avon and Alcester fire stations.

“This is the first time any firefighter has died on duty in this brigade in the living memory of staff at Warwickshire fire and rescue service. That we have lost four comrades is doubly tragic.

“The lessons of the fire at Atherstone-on-Stour must be learned so that we may never again experience such a tragedy in Warwickshire or elsewhere inthe UK fire service.”

Said Dave Whatton, Executive Council member for FBU Region 7 (West Midlands):

“We are all in FBU region 7 devastated by the loss of firefighters Ian Reid, John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley. These four professionals served the community selflessly day in, day out, and they have paid the ultimate price. Our thoughts at this time are with the families and friends.”

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said:

“We are devastated by the loss of our four colleagues who died in the line of duty in Warwickshire. Our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues who have been stunned by these events.

“This is the worst loss the fire service has faced in decades. Our service is traumatised by what has happened.

“Local and national FBU officials are already looking at all health and safety issues relating to this incident. They will be co-operating fully with the Health and Safety Executive and local brigade managers.”

Floral tributes

People wishing to send floral tributes can do so to the following addresses:

Alcester Fire Station, Seggs Lane, Warwickshire B49 5HU
Stratford upon Avon Fire Station, Masons Road, Warwickshire, CV37 9NA

Online book of condolence

An online book of condolence can be found at: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fireandrescue and also via a link from the FBU website at www.fbu.org.uk

Memorial Fund

A memorial fund has been set up to enable those wishing to make a donation as a result of this tragedy. The fund will support the families of the four firefighters and go towards a memorial.
The bank account details of the memorial fund are:

Bank: Lloyds Bank
Sort Code: 30-00-02
A/C No.: 00581408
A/C Name: Warwickshire Firefighters Families Fund

Details of the fund are also on the Warwickshire County Council and Fire Service websites where donations can be made online.

Region 7 thanks members and officials for all the messages of condolence and support. They will be collated and given to the brigade committee at the first appropriate moment

Calls for action on fireworks as LGA, CFOA follows FBU’s lead

The Union’s call for the Government to take urgent action over the storage and transportation of fireworks to prevent a similar tragedy to the fatal Marlie Farm explosion has been followed by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) who have called for “a root and branch review of the way fireworks are regulated in this country.”

During the height of the fireworks season - between July and January - thousands of tonnes of fireworks are transported across the UK and stored in the same ISO storage containers at the centre of the explosion on 3 December last year at Festival Fireworks, East Sussex, which killed Brian Wembridge and Geoff Wicker, and injured another nine firefighters, a police officer and two members of the public.

The Union has said that emergency services and the public are being put in needless danger because of confused regulation, lack of monitoring and the poor labelling of imported fireworks.
And it has accused the Government and the Health and Safety Executive of being slow in their reaction to the dangers uncovered at other incidents during the Marlie Farm investigations.

LGA: “Root and branch review of regulations”

Following the FBU’s lead, the LGA and CFOA have called for “greater controls and safeguards for the import, storage, distribution and sale of fireworks, with fresh attention to internet access and distribution.”

In a statement made on behalf of the LGA, Councillor Les Byrom said:

"Local people continue to be blighted by the misuse of fireworks and it is not acceptable for an illegal trade to flourish at the expense of our citizens. There needs to be more effective control of what are essentially explosives and especially at this time of heightened risk. Some safeguards have been in place but the legislation needs to be revisited as it may no longer be
sufficient."

These concerns about current regulations came as the largest supplier of fireworks to the UK - Standard Fireworks - withdrew from the British Pyrotechnists Association (BPA), the fireworks industry association whose members must follow strict codes of practice on the sale of fireworks.

In a letter circulated to chief fire officers, Standard Fireworks wrote of its work to “continue to uphold safety and quality standards in the UK fireworks industry” through lobbying of “trading standards officers, MPs and emergency services and others”. This work, it explained, could have been “jeopardised” by continued membership of the BPA since the industry body had not accepted proposals that included agreeing “a mechanism for reporting potentially unsafe or illegal products found in the UK.”

Says John McGhee, National Officer responsible for Health and Safety:

“Under the current regulations Guy Fawkes could have simply applied for a license to store the gunpowder he tried to blow up parliament with. The quantity of explosives in ISO containers explode with the same force as artillery shells or RAF bombs.”

“Now we understand that Marlie Farm has re-opened and already the company has taken the supply of 38 tonnes of fireworks – six to seven times the amount of explosives Guy Fawkes had planned to use.”

“At present there is no effective regulation of fireworks standards, labelling, transportation or storage. Government and its agencies have done nothing to properly address what we have already learned about firework-linked explosions at incidents in the UK and other countries.”

Government pressed

General secretary Matt Wrack has written to the Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda expressing “extreme concern” of a repeat of the type of incident to that which occurred almost a year ago at Marlie Farm.

Pointing out that since December 2006, the Government, HSE or any other regulatory agency have taken no action, the General Secretary called on the Minister to urgently hold a review of the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005 and The Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations.

Branches meet to discuss attack on ill-health pensions

FBU branches are meeting up and down the country to discuss the detrimental change in Government guidance on ill-health pensions that has already left three London firefighters without a pension or job.

Meetings so far have indicated support for a “model resolution” issued by the Executive Council (EC) which calls on the EC to “prevail upon the Ministers within CLG to ensure that the current advice is amended in line with that originally provided in 2004” and failing this, “initiate a political campaign aimed at highlighting this disgrace and an industrial campaign aimed at bringing such an amendment into being.“

One station - Stanground in Cambridgeshire – has called for an industrial campaign “up to and including strike action" to ensure the guidance is amended in line with that originally provided in 2004.

Says Richard Nightingale, Brigade Chair Cambridgeshire: “The branch felt that this despicable attack on their pension scheme could not be allowed to succeed without the appropriate industrial response.”

As part of the campaign, the FBU has sent out guidance letters to current and retired members explaining the position. A letter has also been sent to the National Association for Retired Firefighters, NARF, informing it of the situation and seeking its support.

Furthermore, brigade secretaries have received assistance from head office for advising members with pending pension appeals .

The FBU plans a meeting on 22 November to discuss the industrial campaign.

The change in Government guidance on ill-health pensions will potentially affect all FBU members. The Union has had strong indications that anyone who has retired on ill-health grounds in the last 10 years will have their pensions reviewed.

Martin Marrion, one of the three retired members denied a pension and a job, will be speaking Friday 2 November at the FBU’s National School at Wortley Hall, near Sheffield.

The FBU has written to the Fire Minister calling for urgent talks on the matter.
Members will be kept informed. For more information visit www.fbu.org.uk

Devon & Somerset councillors reject budget-driven ALP cuts

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority rejected by 13-10 at a meeting in Exeter on Friday 26 October the budget-driven proposals to dual crew aerial appliances in Barnstable, Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay.

The move, which followed a sustained FBU campaign against the plans involving the collection of over 11,500 signatures in a petition, means 32 firefighter posts - 8 at each station - have been safeguarded.

Says brigade chair, Bob Walker:

“I hope that this decision by the Fire Authority marks an end to the seemingly constant proposals for cuts in frontline firefighters and equipment which have been such a feature of the last few years.

Result thanks to “magnificent campaign” by FBU members and officials

“There is no doubt that the decision of the fire authority was as a direct result of the magnificent campaigning and lobbying of the FBU and our members with the public, press and politicians over many months.

“We have always recognised these proposals for what they really were: cynical cuts based solely on financial motivations with no regard to the significant increase in risk that would occur to the public and firefighters if they were implemented.

“Whilst I am genuinely pleased that our arguments and professional judgments were accepted by the majority of local politicans on the fire authority I find it staggering that senior managers within the service continued to press ahead in the face of the concerns of the FBU and the evidence we were putting forward on behalf of our members.

Fire authority “should have known better”

“They should have, and are meant to have, known better. I want to thank the Devon & Somerset FBU Brigade Committee and all our Members who have once again shown that the Fire Brigades Union, and only the Fire Brigades Union, is the true professional voice of the Fire Service.

“Without the FBU it is likely that a significant number of frontline firefighter posts would have been lost and vital fire cover provided by aerial appliances would have been compromised. This is a victory for the FBU, the Fire & Rescue Service and the public as a whole.”

Adds Trevor French, Devon & Somerset brigade secretary:

"A long political campaign ended in a significant victory for the FBU last Friday.

We lobbied local councillors and MPs and we gained public support through numerous campaign days. This paid dividends when the fire authority rejected the proposal to cut 32 front line firefighters by 13 - 10.

“Once again this proves that the FBU is the only effective union as these proposed cuts were supported by both FOA and RFU.

“The fire authority also acknowledged that the work put in by FBU members in this campaign. It has stated that the FBU has to be part of any public consultation process that Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority runs in the future."

FOA: accepted all the excuses for cuts

Naively, local politicians have asked the FBU why “all” Fire Service Unions” did not come together to campaign against the cuts.

In their submission to the fire authority, FOA said that they “recognise and accept the need to harmonise aerial appliance crewing levels as well as the need for securing budgetary savings.

They also accepted all the reasons (or rather excuses) for the fire authority’s cuts plans as spelled out in a DSFRS “consultation fact sheet” which included “the potential to save at least £1 million annually through changing the crewing arrangements for aerial appliances” that needed to be carried out because of a mere “expectation” of central government funding cuts.

FOA did, however, “have difficulty in supporting the proposed reduction in posts until a comprehensive IRMP is produced which identifies all the risks and associated resource requirements” and said that they “would like to address the FA at its meeting on 12 October to fully explain their view point.” The original date for this meeting was the 12 October. It was postponed until the 26 October.

FOA did not attend this meeting and thus nobody heard them “fully explain their views”.

RFU: cuts ok

As for RFU, it said in its submission to DFRS that it had “no objection to the Service proposal to harmonise the crewing arrangements of the aerial appliances across Devon and Somerset. Also pleased to see the use of CARPs being considered.”

The RFU did not set out how to seek from this harmonisation process an improvement in the overall level of service. And it was clearly cheered by the possible introduction of CARPs [combined aerial rescue pumps], which under the proposals of the fire authority would have meant a loss of jobs and an effective downgrading of the equipment available for emergency response.

FBU: upwards harmonisation to “best possible standards”

Says Tam McFarlane, Executive Council member for the South West: “The FBU also has no objection to harmonising crewing arrangements across Devon and Somerset. However we want to see them harmonised to the best possible standards and not dragged down to the worst, which is what the RFU are advocating.”

Portsmouth residents say no to Hampshire FRS cuts

Four hundred people attended a packed public meeting on 29 October 2007 in Portsmouth to protest against Hampshire Fire & Rescue Authority’s plans to close the central Copnor fire station.

Local residents, local councillors and firefighters made their opposition absolutely clear to senior HFRS officers including John Bonney, chief fire officer and Allan House, deputy chief fire officer, who addressed this HFRS “consultation” meeting and subsequently took questions.

The audience wasn’t impressed to hear confirmation that the proposals were that Copnor Fire Station is to close with the Water Tender Ladder being re-deployed at Southsea and the Special Equipment Unit going to Cosham and that these would go ahead on 2 April 2008, if ageed at the Fire Authority meeting in February. Nor were they pleased with Allan House insisting on quoting at them “trial” response times, which, as one member of the public pointed out, had not, as promised, been put in the public domain.

Services should be boosted not cut

Residents also told Bonney and House that they hadn't addressed the fact that Portsmouth is regularly gridlocked and the student population is set to rise from 21,000 this year to 23,000 next year, nor the fact that a further 15,000 houses are to be built in Portsmouth and as a result fire service resources should be boosted not cut.

There were questions about the failure of fire authority chair, Councillor Michael Cartwright, to attend the meeting and concerns that CFO Bonney would not report the feelings and will of the people of Portsmouth back to the fire authority properly.

And John Bonney was also asked about what cost-based analysis had been done on the proposals, to which he replied that they were not about money. Local MP Mike Hancock was incensed: if it wasn't about money, he said, then why close Copnor fire station at all: “If it ain’t broke why fix it.”

An unofficial vote, organised by city councillors Mike Andrews and Alex Bentley, saw everyone raising their hands to say no to closing the station.

Sylvia Rowe, who campaigned to save the station five years ago and is now fighting for its future again told local reporters: “The number of people who came out just shows how important it is to the people here - I just hope the authority listen to us and keep it open again.”
City council leader Gerald Vernon Jackson added: “There wasn't a single person here who thought it should close.'

Julie Barton, a Hampshire Fire Control Operator and the FBU’s regional official for Region 12 also attended the meeting. She said: “It was a fantastic turn-out and a real demonstration of the strength of opposition in the local community to these cuts proposals by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service. The fire authority needs to drop these plans now.”

Sprinklers campaign moves forward in Wales

The campaign for the mandatory fitting of sprinklers is gathering pace as the demand for them to be fitted in all new build domestic properties in Wales by 2010 has reached an important stage.

Former FBU official and now Assembly Member (AM) for the Vale of Clwyd, Ann Jones has won the opportunity to put forward a Legislative Competence Order (LCO) - equivalent of a private member’s bill in the House of Commons - at the National Assembly for Wales.

This initiative, which is in line with the FBU’s ‘No to Fire Deaths’ campaign, is being supported by the FBU in Wales and the three Welsh fire and rescue services.

The LCO received all party backing at a plenary hearing at the Assembly on 10 October. During the debate Ann received no less than two rounds of applause from her fellow AMs - the first time anyone has received such strength of support during an assembly debate. The LCO now begins a tortuous journey, firstly being referred to a scrutiny committee at the National Assembly, before it is transferred to the House of Commons for further scrutiny and debate.

Building regs need to be devolved

For this initiative to become reality in Wales, requires both Houses of Parliament to agree to relinquish control of Building Regulations in Wales, to the National Assembly. A number of pressure groups, such as CBI and the House Builders Federation, are against control of Building Regulations in Wales being devolved to the National Assembly for Wales for a variety of reasons.

Says John Purser, North Wales brigade secretary and key player in the campaign: “It is imperative to prevent people from dying from fire and its effects and that’s why it is so important that this legislative proposal is successful.

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