Firefighters have called on the mayor of London to suspend plans to scrap 13 fire engines after the London Fire Brigade (LFB) missed its target attendance time when responding to a fire in which a man died. The fire took hold in the early hours of Sunday at 86-year-old Raymond Lister’s property in the borough of Islington.
The mayor has instructed LFB to find £11.5m savings for 2016-17. Two options were recently the subject of a public consultation. The first, proposed by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, achieved the savings through back office efficiencies and altered crewing arrangements for some fire appliances. The second, proposed by LFB commissioner Ron Dobson, recommended the permanent axing of 13 fire engines. Despite 81% of those taking part in the consultation opposing the commissioner’s proposal, the mayor announced last week that he would force it through.
Paul Embery, regional secretary for the FBU in London, said, “An inquest must take place into the death of Mr Lister. However, we already know that the brigade has failed again to meet its target response time at a fatal fire. We also know that the borough where it happened has seen a sixty per cent cut in its fire cover in the last three years. It would therefore be incredibly reckless for Boris Johnson to continue with his planned cuts until all the lessons from this tragic incident have been learned.
“Londoners are being put at risk to meet the mayor’s unreasonable budget demands. There must be a suspension of further cuts before more lives are lost.”
It took the first fire engine, from Holloway fire station, eight minutes and 56 seconds to reach the fire in Ripplevale Road on Sunday morning, and the second, from Euston fire station, 10 minutes and 56 seconds. The brigade’s target response times are six minutes for the first engine and eight minutes for the second. A crew from nearby Islington fire station was detained at another incident and unable to respond.
Paul Embery added: “The missing second fire engine from Holloway would almost certainly have been mobilised to the fire alongside the first Holloway engine, and would have reached the scene quicker than the engine from Euston. Had Clerkenwell fire station not been closed, its crews might also have reached the scene more quickly.”
Since 2013, Islington has lost three of its five fire engines. Two disappeared when Clerkenwell fire station was closed by the mayor and an engine was temporarily removed from Holloway fire station to be used alongside 12 others as contingency for emergency fire crews during periods of strike action in the recent dispute over firefighter pensions.
Despite the LFB and FBU reaching an agreement for these engines to be returned to their home stations in between periods of strike action, the mayor refused to sign off the agreement and now wants to axe the 13 engines permanently.
