boat flooding firefighters 26204655004

Water rescue

Water rescue training is vital for firefighters, but comes with risks, particularly from waterborne illnesses and dry suit issues. Exposure to pathogens in rivers or lakes can cause serious diseases: LEPTOSPIROSIS: Found in water contaminated by animal urine, can lead to severe complications...

Time to deliver: FBU national rally and lobby of Parliament

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2024HOC0339MW
TIME TO DELIVER: FBU national rally and lobby of Parliament Investment | Standards | Workers’ rights In recent years, we have seen how much we can achieve when we stand together. Despite years of cuts...

Building safety: a national scandal

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2024HOC0338MW
Building safety: a national scandal FBU members will have watched in horror at the fire in Dagenham this weekend. Another residential block suffered a significant fire. Large numbers of residents were...
grenfell tower fire

Don’t let them off the hook

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...
HSE contaminants project

HSE plans inspections over fire contaminants

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has set out plans to start inspecting fire and rescue services to regulate measures taken to protect firefighters from carcinogens. These inspections would cover a range of procedures and practices, from precautions at the scene of a fire, to how PPE and...

Firefighter June July 2024

Front cover June July FF 2024
The June/July issue of Firefighter sets out what is at stake in the upcoming general election. Other features include coverage of the union’s annual conference in Blackpool and, more than seven years after the disaster, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report is set to be published this September. In news...

Firefighter magazine
Firefighters pulling our hose appliance

"Crews left exhausted": crisis of understaffing in Essex Fire and Rescue Service

By Alice Dann
The BBC has revealed that Essex Country Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is facing a crisis in staffing, with a Freedom of Information request finding that the service moved firefighters from their usual bases to elsewhere in the county on 2,570 occasions in 2023. Crews are regularly asked to travel...
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...
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