Cuts to the number of fire appliances in Fife and Tayside are the latest in a long line of cuts affecting the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The latest cuts will see appliances removed from over ten stations, including four in Fife with Methil, Dunfermline and Glenrothes each losing one fire engine and Kirkcaldy losing its height appliance.
In Tayside Kingsway East fire station in Dundee will lose one fire engine with another to be removed from the sole fire station in Perth.
Gus Sproul, FBU Scotland regional chair, said:
The FBU has repeatedly raised our concerns about
the impact of cuts to the number of fire appliances serving our communities.Make no mistake, fewer fire appliances and fewer firefighters mean that our communities are at greater risk. Our members who have recently attended major incidents in Fife and Tayside tell us that if they have to attend similar incidents in the future with one less appliance then lives and property will be put at significantly increased danger.
What’s happening across the Service in Scotland is nothing more than the effect of ongoing budget cuts. Politicians and Government Ministers must decide if they are prepared to accept the citizens of their local communities being less safe in their homes.
When the Scottish Government announced their resource-based spending review last year, we said it would have devastating consequences and here we are.
The FBU is absolutely opposed to the cuts and will fight to maintain the level of safety and security that the local communities of Scotland deserve.”
