Health and Safety

Firefighters have reacted angrily after a promise to return 13 fire engines to London fire stations was blocked by Mayor Boris Johnson. The Fire Brigades Union says it is concerned the safety of Londoners is being compromised. The fire engines were requisitioned for the use of private strikebreakers...

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...

The FBU is extremely concerned about “major flaws” discovered in fire proofing materials used in the construction of the UK’s first private finance initiative (PFI) built hospital. First opened in 2000 Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle was the first hospital to be built in partnership with the...

The FBU has published a domestic abuse policy document in order to help officials negotiate a local policy to raise awareness within their fire and rescue service. Samantha Rye, secretary of the FBU national women’s committee, said: “Domestic violence is abhorrent and repugnant. Perpetrators should...

Firefighters will today remember their comrade Richard Jenkins who died 11 years ago whilst tackling a fire in Cardiff. Richard Jenkins was the first firefighter to enter a building on fire at Newgale Place Ely, Cardiff in the early hours of Sunday 23 May 2004. He was caught in an explosion when a...

Reacting to the publication of an Audit Scotland report that revealed a funding gap of £43M in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “When the single fire service in Scotland was set up, it was claimed by the Scottish Government that it was about protecting...

The FBU has warned that more firefighters could be seriously injured or killed at work if lessons are not learned from past fatalities. A report by Stirling University, published earlier this year, found that in the last decade the number of firefighter deaths at fires in the UK had doubled from the...

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue have been accused of putting the lives of the public at risk by underhandedly sending their firefighters to medical emergency incidents that should be responded to by paramedics, the Fire Brigades Union has said. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue currently have only...

Essex fire service was plunged into chaos again after a failing IT system sent fire engines from all parts of the county out to imaginary incidents. The meltdown came just hours after fire chiefs were forced to fend off probing questions from councillors at a fire authority meeting over the endemic...