The FBU has reported two fire and rescue services to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and identified several others, in relation to bringing in policy which would see firefighters sent into fires without donning their breathing apparatus facemask.
The FBU wrote to the HSE urging it to “investigate our complaint and use its statutory powers to bring an end” to the policy.
The union has also launched a public campaign raising awareness of the dangers of this change to policy and encouraging firefighters and the public to sign a petition opposing these measures.
The policy change would make it possible to instruct firefighters to go beyond the point of safe air with their breathing apparatus turned off in high-rise building fires – a move the union says breaks health and safety law. Hampshire & Isle of Wight and Dorset & Wiltshire fire and rescue services have both introduced the change.
FBU national officer Riccardo la Torre said: “Fire bosses would do well to remember that the safety procedures they are ripping up exist for a reason – they were born from the death and injury of firefighters.”
