Cuts leave public at greater risk says union

FIRE casualties rose 18 per cent in Leicestershire last year as unions warned that cuts to fire brigades were ‘damaging public safety’.

Ten people were killed and 76 were injured by fires in the county in 2017/18.

This was up 18 per cent on 2016/17, when six were killed and 67 injured.

Some 51 of the people injured in 2017/18 had to go to hospital for treatment.

The firefighters union said Government cuts to the service were ‘damaging public safety’ and that the Grenfell Tower disaster ‘should have been a wakeup call’.

Leicestershire has lost more than 200 firefighters over the past seven years.

In 2010 the fire service had the equivalent of 690 full-time firefighters on its payroll.

That fell to 515 in 2016 and 481 in 2017.

Dave Green, Fire Brigades Union national officer, told us: “These dreadful new figures confirm firefighters’ worst fears. Austerity cuts are now damaging public safety.

“For years, politicians have slashed our service and excused their actions because long term improvements were still being made.

“Now their figures show the public is at greater risk. The Grenfell Tower fire should have been a wake-up call. The Westminster government should have reacted by investing in the fire and rescue service, but instead they just keep on cutting.

“They can’t even keep a proper count of the numbers who died as a result of the Grenfell Tower fire.

“Firefighters have lost complete confidence in this Tory government.

They are putting the public at risk, while wrecking a wellrespected, professional public service.”

Across England firefighters dealt with 167,150 fires in 2017/18, the highest figure for four years.

The increase comes at a time when fire and rescue services have lost the equivalent of 8,500 firefighters since 2010.

A total of 334 people lost their lives in fires last year, including the 71 people who died in Grenfell Tower in June 2017.

Excluding those 71, some 263 people died in fires in 2017/18, the same total as the previous year.

In general however fire safety in Britain has improved significantly since the turn of the century.

In 2000/01 firefighters dealt with almost 360,000 fires while 446 people lost their lives. Leicestershire casualties and fatalities 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 107 96 106 76 77 105 73 86