Firefighter magazine April/May 2016
FBU backed 'Operator' film nominated for a BAFTA
A short film centred around an intense phone call between a control room firefighter and a distressed mother who is trapped in a burning house with her sons is hoping to pick up a BAFTA award on Sunday. The film, which highlights the difficulties and challenges the emergency services face when...
Firefighters to ballot for industrial action in South Yorkshire over loss of vital control operator jobs
Firefighters in South Yorkshire will be balloted for industrial action in protest over plans which include cutting a quarter of all emergency control operators within the fire and rescue service and changes to firefighters’ leave arrangements. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) say that the senior...
Callous' job cuts force South Yorkshire firefighters into dispute
Firefighters have lodged a formal trade dispute with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority over plans to cut a quarter of control operators in the region. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has given the fire authority until 6 January 2016 to withdraw the proposed job cuts, as a matter of public...
Essex firefighters warn against dangerous cuts as they take strike action
Firefighters in Essex took strike action Thursday 6 August in protest at the largest, most devastating cuts to emergency fire response in the history of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS). FBU Brigade Chair for Essex Riccardo la Torre said “We will see these cuts hit all areas of our 999...
Essex firefighters repeat call for independent inquiry into failed £1M 'state of the art' 999 fire control room
Calls for a public inquiry into the £1 million Essex Emergency Fire Control fiasco continue following the new Fire Minister’s visit to the Essex Fire and Rescue HQ at Kelvedon Park on Friday. The mobilising system failure also affects Bedfordshire. The FBU has asked the new Fire Minister and Essex...
Video | Update from Essex as dispute escalates
Firefighters and emergency 999 control staff in Essex have been taking industrial action over plans to cut 179 firefighting jobs. Equivalent to a quarter of all frontline staff the cuts are the largest ever proposed in any one year in the UK fire and rescue service. Essex Country Fire and Rescue...
£5k a day cost of empty fire control buildings, as budgets are cut, is gross hypocrisy
South West Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Officials have slammed the continued waste of £1.9 million of tax payers’ money on the empty regional fire control building in Taunton. The failed project, established by the Labour Government in 2004, has left an empty building in Taunton while national fire and...
Essex fire service putting public safety at risk as strikers protesting against biggest jobs cut ever are punished
Bullish fire chiefs in Essex are sending the normal professional fire and rescue force home without pay from 6pm today (Friday 12th June) until 9am on Monday morning (l5th June) to punish firefighters who are going on strike for a single night shift on Saturday (13th June). The firefighters are...
