Health and Safety

Essex Fire Service is in turmoil this week as its new ‘state-of-the-art’ control system that mobilises fire appliances for emergencies collapsed after repeated and multiple faults. Essex Fire Service began using the new state of the art mobilising system when it moved to its new control room earlier...

Demonstrators will gather in Lincoln’s St Martins Square at 11:30am on Saturday (31 January) to draw attention to the effects that radical cuts to the local fire service will have on the city’s safety. After a short rally, protestors will march to Speakers’ Corner on Lincoln High Street. The...

Firefighters in South Yorkshire have expressed serious safety concerns for the public and their members about plans to use them as emergency cover for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue currently have just 229 fire officers who have completed an Initial Emergency Care...

Leicestershire firefighters have said it is their moral duty to fight proposals to cut services in the county after Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service published its Integrated Risk Management Plan. The ‘Proposals for Change’ document contains several proposals that would cut three fire engines...

Staffordshire fire authority could stop frontline cuts to the local fire and rescue service through a minimal increase in council tax funding of 2.5p a week. The fire authority has had its allocation of funding from council tax frozen over the past four years and the financial year 2015 – 16 could...

Essex firefighters and 999 control staff will begin strike action at 09.00 today (Wednesday) in their continuing fight against huge frontline cuts to the fire and rescue service in Essex. Essex County Fire and Rescue Authority (ECFRA) plan to cut at least 179 firefighters and control staff resulting...

Overstretched and under-resourced accident and emergency departments across the UK have led to fire engines being used as makeshift ambulances in a desperate attempt to stem the crisis. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “The A&E crisis is a direct result of the governments failed austerity...

Responding to plans by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude to have the UK fire and rescue service run and delivered by a private company Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “We are wholeheartedly against our service being delivered by a private company whose main motive will be to turn a...