MOTORISTS might expect a fire engine to turn up if their car goes up in flames.

But Fire Brigades Union (FBU) leaders claimed today they may instead get "two firefighters in a van".

The FBU said North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was planning to trial community safety vehicles (CSVs) for use in tackling car fires and small blazes.

Fire chiefs said that, if CSVs were to attend such incidents, they would be mobilised at the same time as fire engines.

The FBU said CSVs - Mercedes Benz Sprinter vans that currently provide advice and education in the county - would undergo the trials "imminently."

They claimed that if the trials were successful, CSVs would attend those types of incidents in their own right - without a regular fire engine. And if CSVs attended those incidents, they would have a crew of two firefighters instead of five, the FBU said, claiming this would impact upon crew and public safety.

Graeme Willis, chairman of the FBU in North Yorkshire, said: "With a car fire for example, if the CSV is unable to deal with it, vital minutes could be lost while waiting for a regular fire engine to attend to deal with the incident.

"There's obviously the risk of explosion from cars - the CSVs wouldn't be able to deal with that.

"Many car fires attended require the operation of two hose reels in order to extinguish them, which would not be available with the CSVs.

"There would be insufficient firefighters to deal with an incident in a safe manner."

Mr Willis said, from his experience, many large fires had developed from small fires, and that rapid intervention was of paramount importance.

He said this would not be provided by the CSV and crew of two firefighters. We have serious concerns for the fire fighters who will be ordered to ride these CSVs to emergency incidents whilst travelling up to and in excess of maximum road speeds without any additional internal protection which would be afforded to a conventional fire engine," he said.

"Furthermore, they do not even offer airbag protection to the occupants. In the event of a collision I would be doubtful that serious injury or even death could be avoided."

"On recent station visits the chief fire officer would not categorically deny that the CSVs may replace some fire appliances in the future. In the CSV consultation document it clearly states that these vehicles will be an additional resource - obviously if a van and two fire fighters are replacing a fire engine and five fire fighters then that is a cut or a reduction and may endanger fire fighters and the public's lives."


CSVs will enhance' service, say bosses

A NORTH Yorkshire fire chief today sought to reassure the public over the proposed use of the Community Safety Vehicles (CSV).

Ian Bitcon, head of community risk for North Yorkshire Fire And Rescue Service, said: "We are currently working with the Fire Brigades Union to establish a date to implement a trial for the use of CSVs to support full fire appliances at certain incidents.

"This is a staged trial period and will initially cover attendance at road traffic collisions and small fires around Skipton and Selby.

"I must stress that this does not mean a reduction in the level of fire cover, and in fact will enhance the service, as a full scale fire appliance will be mobilised to incidents as normal and at the same time as the CSV is mobilised."

Mr Bitcon said CSVs might be able to reach incidents quicker than a full-sized engine and would, with the use of a fully-trained crew, be able to assess the scene and any dangers posed to the public and fire fighters.

The service said it would only look at extending the CSV trials to include car fires after it had evaluated the success of the small fire and road traffic collision trials.