A firefighter talks to fellow women firefighters

PPE must be safe for women

Threats to women’s specific PPE are a safety risk, says the FBU’s National Women’s Committee In 1996, firefighter Fleur Lombard lost her life in the line of duty. Her death remains a stark reminder that inadequate PPE design can have fatal consequences. Nearly three decades later, the same danger...
FF kit and fire appliance

Pressing need for regulation

At even very low levels, chemicals of the PFAS group pose a serious threat that the UK government is slow to react to. Professor Andrew Watterson, public health researcher, University of Stirling, sets out the issues Firefighters have become increasingly familiar with and in contact with PFAS. Poly...

Firefighter magazine April May 2024

April May FF 2024 front cover
This issue of Firefighter focusses on the union’s campaigning over the last two decades to defend firefighters’ pensions against government attacks. The magazine also includes features on the risks posed to firefighters by PFAS, what the union is doing to fight for firefighters using its link to the...

Firefighter magazine
Scotland wildfire Cannich May 2023

As wildfires rage….

....questions on kit, training, resources and shortages of firefighters are looming larger. Firefighters across the UK face a postcode lottery when it comes to levels of equipment and training for tackling a rapidly growing threat, writes Helen Hague The warnings from the Met Office are stark...
A firefighter wearing breathing apparatus amongst smoke

Firefighters’ union calls for cancer compensation on memorial day

By Ben Duncan-Duggal
Firefighters’ union calls for cancer compensation on memorial day FBU calls for compensation for firefighters with cancer and other diseases linked to their work Call comes on Firefighters’ Memorial Day, as firefighters line up outside stations to remember fallen colleagues UK “decades behind” other...

Coronavirus: Firefighters now allowed to carry out antigen tests

By Anna Zych
Firefighters across the UK could support the delivery of COVID-19 testing, including taking samples for antigen tests, in the latest agreement between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), fire chiefs and fire service National Employers. After appropriate training, firefighters will be able to carry out...
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