Lives put at risk as four Plymouth firestations to cut crews

“Dear OutsideView

Yes that is correct its called a precepting authority, therefore it remains as stated the tax payer of Plymouth is subsidizing the rural fire service provision, but we are facing the cuts! Plymouth probably could support its current fire service provision and more! Lets see the data that supports the downgrading of crewing against other options, such as closing rural stations?”

“by Gideon

Sunday, January 20 2013, 8:11AM
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"Questions need to be asked and answered..

How much do Council tax payers of Plymouth support rural fire services


The Fire Service is covered by a separate levy that PCC collects on behalf of the Devon & Somerset Fire Service and covers the whole area and has no say in its increases. Similarly with the police force.”

“Questions need to be asked and answered..

How much do Council tax payers of Plymouth support rural fire services? Should the people of Plymouth insist on returning to a City of Plymouth Fire Service? The public shoud be seeking an independant review of the poposals,are Fire chiefs positioned to make these proposals and changes? how much more unsafe will we be?
Can Plymouth expand, yes then why are the stations at Plympton and Plymouth being down graded? Do pretty fire stations fight fires,no! the fire trucks I have seen look old..mind you the same cant be said for the officers cars, are BMW's really necessary? Someone has mentioned about cash reserves being built up! return it to the taxpayers its not yours”

“If the RNLI lifeboats are manned by volunteers, why not the fire brigade?”

“8 firemen to rescue a cat, i rest my case!”

“The amount of fire engines sent are always if its a worse case scenario. Imagine the complaints and cost of lives, damage to property etc if they turned up without enough resources to deal with a situation? They are the last emergency service that attend everything ready to deal with whatever they're faced with, within a decent time frame.

Each fire engine can give 1 team of 2 to go into a fire. That's why 3 engines turn up to a house fire. 2 teams to search and one as a emergency crew, it also provide a failure factor if a pump fails when people will die if something goes wrong. It's the same as car crashes, it allows for multiply crews to be able to work, and a fire engine makes a great barrier to allow paramedics, police and fire crews to work safely without being driven into by rubber neckers. It always seems a lot but every single person has a specific role. Either to look after the crews working or to ensure they have the resources required.

The comments about playing snooker, sat drinking tea etc belong in the seventies. Fires are less frequent, but they still require the same amount of firefighters to deal with them, that hasn't changed, and never will change this despite all the prevention work the fire service does. As actual fires, or rtc's or everything else a modern firefighter does decrease, the training that is undertaken to deal with them increase. Less shouts, less real life experience is gained, so more training is needed. The fire service receives no funding for all the flooding work it does, despite recently that 90% of all stations were involved in flood related incidents.

If you live in Plymouth you are so lucky with the fire cover you currently have. The crews that arrive, always within minutes, are able to save you as the resources are there to send firefighters into a deadly environments or effective action as the required numbers needed are there, both for the public and firefighter safety. this will change if the current proposals go ahead.

Some firefighters do have second jobs, but they work them on their days off, after already being on duty for 48hrs a week. They might well get to sleep, but they're still able to respond to you when you'll die without them within seconds. The turn out time for crews at night (after midnight till 7 if nothing needs to be done) is exactly the same as during the day. Doctors, paramedics also grab a kip at nights, it's just that the fire crews are based at a station, and we are less required.

Also for the record the fire brigade has been on strike twice in the last 30 years. The armed services, police etc can't but do you really think they wouldn't if they could? The last one was based on the government not following they own review on firefighters pay, if it happens again it will be against cuts that will cost public and firefighters lives.”

“of course they are justifiable, efficiency and work a bit more instead of playing snooker all day”

“To anyone who thinks these cuts are justifiable.....

When YOU have YOUR fire, lets hope crews get there quickly, with the necessary resources to rescue YOUR family members and that these firefighters are not knackered because BettyD objects to them resting.”

“they must become more efficient, not send 3 crews plus ariel platfofm ladder and thermal imaging equipment to a fire this week that was out when they got there,what a waste of time and money ,”

“With the recent floods leading insurers to refuse to insure some properties for this risk, might it not lead to an increase in house fires as a more complete job could be achieved if a fire crew takes longer to arrive?”