Crews’ ‘hand to mouth’ existence
Floods role must be recognised
FIREFIGHTERS: Crews in South Yorkshire are operating on a “hand to mouth” existence as they struggle to tackle incidents such as flooding with increased frequency, while battling against austerity.
Last year’s floods underlined the need for change in how resources are allocated to fire services, according to unions.
FIREFIGHTERS IN South Yorkshire are operating on a “hand to mouth” existence as they struggle to tackle incidents such as flooding with increased frequency, while battling against austerity.
The floods at the end of last year underlined the need for changes to be made in how resources are allocated to fire services, argued the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as South Yorkshire firefighters travelled to Westminster yesterday to lobby MPs to join their campaign.
Neil Carbutt, FBU South Yorkshire brigade secretary, said the announcement by South Yorkshire Fire Authority last year that it had a £4m blackhole in its finances meant 83 jobs in the service were at risk.
Ultimately the jobs were saved but Mr Carbutt said: “That has facilitated some other conversations around ‘Does the funding formula actually work for South Yorkshire?’ And, no the funding formula does not work for South Yorkshire and we all recognise the problems.”
Flooding in Fishlake and elsewhere in Yorkshire at the end of last year showed the crucial role firefighters play in these disasters. Although they have the power to help in these situations, they do not have to do so by law.
Mr Carbutt said the FBU was pushing for flooding to be included in fire services’ statutory duty, so they could get the right funding, whereas at the moment there was a shortfall.
He said: “We’ve recently had the floods in Fishlake, these have to be borne by the service and when we are facing these cuts and funding pressures, we get squeezed.
“To put it into context, if we’ve got 85 firefighters out of service that’s four fire engines less in Fishlake.”
Mr Carbutt said one of the most touching pictures during the Fishlake floods was of two Rotherham firefighters passing a Sainsbury’s bag into the upper window of a house to an elderly woman. He said: “They had gone and bought the tea, milk, and biscuits out of their own money.”
Andy Strelczenie, head of emergency response at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said his role of trying to make sure the service had enough resources had “become increasingly difficult to do”.
“Funding for flooding is quite poor,” Mr Strelczenie said. “We had a number of organisations who came up and helped us and we’ve helped West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria.
“But that does come at a cost, there is a financial cost and we can claw back some of the funding. We were told these are once in 50-year events and that’s just not been the case.
“We’re really proud of what our men and women do but we need to be able to continue that.”
Robert Taylor, who chairs South Yorkshire Fire Authority, added that the floods in Doncaster were “just an example of something that really stretched our abilities”.
He said: “Austerity has pushed us into a position where day-today, we’re on a hand-to-mouth existence.”
The FBU has now begun a campaign for a fairer funding model to be introduced for all fire services, backed by both the South Yorkshire service and fire authority, which would include getting better flooding funds.
The campaigners visiting Westminster yesterday had support from MPs Rosie Winterton, Clive Betts, Ed Miliband, Gill Furniss, Olivia Blake and Sarah Champion.
Mr Carbutt said: “It’s a really positive message out of this, we’re hopeful we can launch a campaign for fairer funding.”
We were told these are once in 50-year events, that’s not been the case.
Andy Strelczenie, head of emergency response at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
IT WAS apposite that the Prince of Wales found the time during his visit to flood-hit Fishlake to meet those firefighters from South Yorkshire who assisted with the rescue effort.
He knows that the threat to local residents would have been even greater without their assistance evacuating residents and then pumping water out of flooded properties.
And they’re not alone. It was the same last summer when the Yorkshire Dales was hit by a devastating deluge – firefighters were answering 999 calls while their own fire station in Leyburn was being left submerged by rapidly rising water.
Yet, while firefighters regard such work as part of their responsibilities, the Government has still to acknowledge the importance of such work – and how it should help to inform future funding decisions.
It should do. As this newspaper continues to challenge Ministers, and others, to learn lessons from the River Don floods, the critical role of firefighters needs to be part of this review.
As such, Ministers are duty-bound to respond to the genuine concerns of the Fire Brigades Union about training, equipment and resources when it comes to responding to floods – many will be surprised by this criticism when the expectation, from politicians and others, is that crews will risk their safety to help others.
After all, the clue is in the name. Local areas no longer have their own fire service. They have a fire and rescue service – and the skills needed for responding to floods can be very different to those that are required when a fire breaks out.