Firefighters’ union fears for safety if job cuts go ahead

The Fire Brigades Union is opposing plans to reduce the number of crew members on all fire engines in the city from five to four.

The proposals were dropped after running into opposition three years ago, but are among a range of options going out to consultation today as part of plans to save £5.5m by 2016/2017.

The 12-week consultation will include drop-in sessions with the public also able to look at the options online and indicate their preferences.

Brigade secretary Richard Walker said a crew of four could turn up to a house fire, and feel obliged to go in, without waiting for a second engine, even if it meant breaking their own safety procedures.

“We strongly oppose it because we believe it is detrimental for firefighter safety.

“There would be a great moral pressure for firefighters to commit despite the fact that they would be committing against their safety procedures.”

However assistant chief fire officer Chris Blacksell said they’d been open about the fact that the vast majority of options carried a “very small” increased risk, and it would have an impact on response times – but not reduce it to below the level set by the fire authority.

“You have to weigh it up against the reduction in calls,” he said. “Whilst there will be a slight increased risk, it won’t increase it to the levels there were 10 years ago. In Hull we can react quickly in any case as we have seven engines in a relatively close location.”

He added: “It’s fair to say we wouldn’t be putting the vast majority of the options on the table if it were not for the financial situation.”

Mr Blacksell said across the area nearly 30 per cent of the time fire engines were arriving on scene with a crew of four anyway.

In Hull, the fire service is proposing to increase the number of vehicles turning out to fires from two to three, one option being to man a small fires unit, a 4x4 used to fight bonfires and wheelie bin fires.

The fire authority will meet early next year to decide which options to select, including station mergers in Immingham and Grimsby and removing second fire engines.