Every day and every night throughout the year Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service reduce the number of fire engines available for your protection.
The chances are that you know nothing about this as these cuts to your Fire Service have been made without consultation with you the public, although your local Fire Authority councillors have agreed to these reductions in fire cover.
Despite a fall in fire statistics calls to property where people may be trapped have remained steady, calls to large building fires are on the increase and very expensive according to the insurance industry [more] with livelehoods and businesses lost as a result.
Firefighter fatalities and injuries are on an alarmingly upward trend with 13 UK firefighters killed between 2003 and 2007 [more]. You will not find these statistics in any Audit Commission report!
The Fire Authority in Manchester plan to further strip you of emergency cover.
From 1st July 2009 they plan to increase the cuts by removing 4 fire engines during the day and 4 fire engines at night. This is a dangerous step for both the public and Firefighters of Greater Manchester.
While fire engines maybe able to meet guideline attendance times of 8 minutes (longer than they used to be for most areas) Firefighters would be unable to adhere to their safe systems of work. This leaves them having to make a choice between your safety and their own. Greater Manchester has the second worst record on fire deaths outside of London[more]. Specialist appliances no longer have dedicated crews and now use the fire engine crew meaning that the fire engine is no longer availabe. When these special appliances are utilised anywhere in Manchester most stations have no engine available as managers will not now send in another to cover. This is described as an improvement!
The overall number of front line operational firefighters has been radically reduced over the last four years. The Fire Service maintains that this reduction is “only 250 firefighters”. The reductions in front line fire cover, operational firefighters and fire engines will compromise both public and firefighter safety!
If you wish to see when fire cover in your own particular area is reduced then please follow the links provided below.
[Bolton] [Bury] [Manchester] [Oldham] [Rochdale]
[Salford] [Stockport] [Tameside] [Trafford] [Wigan]