Fire Brigades Union members to strike this Saturday

The strikes are in support of the Fire Brigades Union campaign against changes to pensions proposed by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

John Redmond, Chief Fire Officer for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Again similar to the last strike days, it is predominantly our wholetime fire stations in Shrewsbury and Telford that will be impacted by the planned strike. Our On-call, staffed fire stations, which are largely based in the more rural areas of Shropshire, are less likely to be affected.”

“I would like to thank the On Call crews on behalf of the Fire authority and the local community for the support provided by them during this dispute. Many of the stations are making extra efforts to provide cover in particular during the periods when the full time crews are out on strike.

“In addition to the On call crews we have put in place contingency arrangements to provide reduced emergency cover for the whole county. This has, for example, involved the staffing of fire engines with wholetime firefighters who are not taking industrial action.

“Businesses are also being asked to play their part in reducing risk during these periods by further helping to reduce the number of false alarms caused by faulty automatic fire alarm systems which require a response from our fire crews,” said Mr Redmond

He pointed out that the Service’s Fire Control, which deals with the 999 calls in Shropshire, will be unaffected by strike action.

“Our administration staff will be working as normal, however some business and community fire prevention work is likely to be cut back.

“We are asking people to only call 999 if they really do need a fire engine. Our priority is to respond to calls where a life may be at risk, or someone needs to be rescued. If we respond to non-emergency calls then those most in need could be at risk.”

CFO John Redmond thanked the public for the extra vigilance they have shown during periods of reduced fire cover due to strike action which has resulted in only essential calls received by the service, however he stated that it was noticeable during those periods that the number of calls increased to levels experienced outside of strike periods.

He said “ We have been publicising ways the public can keep themselves safe and emphasising the importance of only calling the Fire Service when it is essential, however we have noticed call levels creeping up as the number of strike periods increases.”

“This may be because members of the public are not aware that we are experiencing repeated periods of reduced fire cover as more strikes take place. This is the 14th period of strike action in the current dispute.

“We publicise periods of strike action and would urge everyone to remain vigilant when we are providing a reduced service.”