I WAS deeply disturbed by the account of the reduction in firefighting capacity described in recent articles.
The new system will reduce firefighting capacity; the maximum time taken for a tender to reach a fire will be allowed to rise from eight to 15 minutes in the larger urban areas; there will be less manpower at fires and more occasions when some fire engines will be unable to respond immediately.
The strategy is based on prevention at the expense of cure.
We will be faced with lengthening response times, justified by estimates of the possible reduction of fires resulting from the new fire prevention measures. This must increase the threat to the lives of both firefighters and the public when fires do occur.
The fire prevention measures should be introduced as well as, not instead of, firefighting capacity. Cuts should only be made after the new measures have achieved a reduction in the volume of fires.
The present policy looks suspiciously like cost cutting dressed up as an improvement in services. Leaflets and smoke alarms do not put out fires.
Martin Biggs,
Caedmon Close, York.
Updated: 10:26 Tuesday, July 19, 2005
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