Features

Firefighter talks to Rosalind Eyben, daughter of the wartime FBU general secretary John Horner and his wife Pat, about her new book on their lives Can you set out who John Horner, your father, was? What was his background before becoming a political figure, and what memories do you have of him? John...

Pat Carberry, the FBU national secretary for LGBT+ members, has a 100% success rate defending firefighters at tribunals. He told Francis Beckett why he succeeds and why he remained a frontline firefighter despite his union role. Pat Carberry is best known in the FBU as national secretary for LGBT+...

The Grenfell Tower public inquiry is set to publish its final report on 4 September, more than seven years after the disaster. FBU national officer Mark Rowe, sets out the union’s perspective Never again. That was the sentiment after the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, which cost the lives of...

The announcement of a general election while this year’s FBU annual conference was in session emphasised its crucial role FBU annual conference 2024 took place between 22 and 24 May in Blackpool, with hundreds of delegates, observers and guests in attendance. Since the previous year’s gathering...

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack sets out what is at stake on 4 July Fourteen years of Conservative rule have brought the UK to its knees. Our public services have been left in crisis by over a decade of austerity. The fire service is in a state of emergency, cut to the bone. Your pay, pensions, and...

Employers have a duty to ensure that workplaces are accessible to all, says FBU assistant general secretary Ben Selby People with minds and bodies of all kinds and functions work in fire stations and control rooms. The fire and rescue service is neurodiverse, as is our union. But employers are...

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...

National officer Riccardo La Torre sets out what the FBU is doing to fight for firefighters via its Labour link The FBU is affiliated to the Labour Party in England and Wales. As an affiliate, we have an opportunity to argue and campaign for policies within the democratic channels of the party. When...

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack looks back at the history of the FBU’s recent campaigns on firefighters’ pensions. Thousands of FBU members will soon start to receive injury to feelings payments as part of the FBU’s 2019 legal victory over pensions. These payments (£3,750 for the majority) are a...

Two firefighters from Wales, Rebecca Openshaw‑Rowe and Georgina Gilbert, pulled well over their own body weight on an untried 750-mile plus route to the South Pole. They spoke to Steve Morgan “52 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes – in the freezer”. It doesn’t get any further removed from the...