Firef ighters in row over entering terror ‘hot zone’

THE Scottish Fire and Rescue service (SFRS) is in a dispute with staff over how to respond to a possible terror threat at COP26.

Fire chiefs hope to set up specialist terror attack response teams across Glasgow in the event of a catastrophic incident at the conference.

But the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have said some firefighters are not contractually obliged to risk entering the ‘hot zone’ of an attack.

Now, the SFRS has had to train up volunteers to staff its response units, amid concerns for the safety of high-profile delegates and the public.

Thousands of people are soon to descend on Glasgow ahead of the conference, including heads of state, politicians and environmental activists from across the globe.

Police Scotland will deploy a large number of armed officers – equipped with Glock handguns and semi-automatic G36 assault rifles – as a ‘contingency’ measure in the event of a terror attack. Despite being one of the emergency services, SFRS has been restricted over which firefighters it can deploy.

Last night, the Scottish Tories called for the dispute to be urgently resolved ahead of the conference.

Community safety spokesman Russell Findlay said: ‘The public will be concerned that this situation has not been resolved with only a couple of weeks to go until COP26.

While it is hoped they will not be needed, every effort must be made to ensure that specialist firefighters are available.’

The SFRS confirmed that as a result of the row with the FBU, it has had to approach individual members of staff to ask them to volunteer during the event outwith their contracts.

Assistant chief officer Stuart Stevens said: ‘We want to protect the communities of Scotland against the emerging risk of terrorism, and this is a stated priority of our service.

‘Our ambition is to have an agreed position with our representative bodies to enable us to have dedicated specialist response teams strategically located.’

But he added: ‘Through the established collective bargaining process, we were unfortunately unable to secure any permanent agreement to make the required contractual changes on this occasion.

‘We know that we have the capability to work alongside partners and help support a safe COP26 event. We therefore approached our employees directly to understand if they would willingly volunteer to be trained, equipped and paid to provide this specialist response to attend a marauding terror attack incident if required.’

In a report about the force’s preparedness for COP26, published last week, the HM Fire Service Inspectorate, led by Robert Scott, QC, said it regretted the situation.

Last night, Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: ‘Fire and rescue service response to marauding terrorist attacks has been performed by firefighters undertaking this work voluntarily whilst talks are under way across the UK, since it was first identified as a national risk in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attack. Most of these volunteers are FBU members.’