Heatwave Fires

[Messyshaw]

London have declared a major emergency after multiple major jobs. Since 09:30

• 1 x 30 pump 
• 2 x 15 pump
• 1 x 12 pump 
• 4 x 8 pump 
• 2 x 6 pump 
• 6 x 4 pump 

Don't forget they have around 25% off the run due to staff shortages so are very stretched - as are all the neighbouring FRS

[Rory-495]

Just saw footage of the Wennington fire. More than a grass fire, it's crossed into buildings. Scary stuff that we will see more of in coming years

[Bgjm21]

LFB completely out of appliances apparently? 

[Trevatanus]

A friend lives in Twickenham where there is a golf course alight, he said he drove past and the only presence was Police.

I’m not in the fire service, and only know what I see online, but this must be one of the busiest days in Fire Service history in the Uk?

[Carl]

We have had a bit of a battering over the past 24 hours in Manchester. Sent a good few resources across the border into Cheshire. Nothing like the devastation in London in terms of property fires from wildfire, but plenty of open moorland. Also seen our fair share of water deaths, yet again. 

[OscarTango]

Ok. This is a day il say 24s aren't the best 😂. 

Both of our pumps have been up at the two Dartford jobs after grassfires earlier in the day. Had Bromley with us too. Didn't realise quite how bad it all was until I saw the news. 

Every county around London was also at max output. We were down to five pumps to cover the county with everything else commited, and that's with front loading additional pumps with on call additional hours and even training center pumps. 

A bonkers day. Nine hours still to go

[TandA]

Essex were the same.  Down to single figures for available appliances in the whole county at times with everything else committed, some very long distance attendances and assistance to / from neighbouring services.  Our crews and Control did an amazing job in the face of the carnage.  I hope yesterday wasn’t a sign of things to come but I suspect this will become a regular story almost every year.  

[Rory-495]

When I checked yesterday at about 5pm there were no appliances avaialble. Harrow had two major jobs going which is unheard of. I heard a rumour as well that a large fire by RAF Northolt had the RAF firefighters assisting due to lack of resources 

[Aspire]

2 hours ago, TandA said:

Down to single figures for available appliances in the whole county at times with everything else committed, some very long distance attendances and assistance to / from neighbouring services.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard Southend mobile to the 30 in Upminster that I attended.

Judging by the radio, sounds like Ongar had a good time in London, being sent to Standby at Dagenham but not reaching there as they picked up 3 incidents back to back.

[Messyshaw]

2 hours ago, Rory-495 said:

When I checked yesterday at about 5pm there were no appliances avaialble. Harrow had two major jobs going which is unheard of. I heard a rumour as well that a large fire by RAF Northolt had the RAF firefighters assisting due to lack of resources 

Not just a rumour.

The LFB website shows this as a 10 PF but were only able to muster less than half that amount of pumps 

RAF Northolt closed as the fire was above the final approach - indeed, there are landing lights in part of the 15 hectares of damaged fields 

I would like to know why the LFB were unable to provide 10 pumps here, when an hour later and 2 miles away, Bucks managed to procure 10 pumps for a scrapyard job

Across the LFB crews worked 8hrs or more at underresourced incidents without any relief in 40c. 

I hope this all comes out in a wash up after, but knowing LFB management,  they will be too busy slapping each other on the back for a job well done 

[Br9mp81]

Dare say i'mnot going to be popular with this,but do not huge amounts of cash get get spend on standby crews for strike/black death etc, could not they had been used for know grass fires, i take it its still a thing

[BurtMacklin]

I think the more pressing issue is the 39 fire engines we had off the run that day before we start looking for outside the organisation help 

[Br9mp81]

39!, staff issues or trucks on the biff, or mix of both.

 

[BurtMacklin]

mainly staffing, I don’t want to rant though due to the neutral nature of the forum and it’s a tragedy for the people who lost their homes and livelihoods. 

[Messyshaw]

With 30 odd pumps off the run every day due to management incompetence staff shortages, I think you should rant as it is bloody disgraceful😡

 

[Rory-495]

It's sickening. Every. Single. Day. They're off the run. 

We are scraping by and until something terrible happens nothing will change

[BurtMacklin]

well that was the day they got caught out by it and the media just don’t seem interested. standard online ran a piece and LBC had some staff call in but neither requested comments from city hall or LFB. 

[Rory-495]

It's an absolute joke. Like you said, I don't want to rant on here, but it boils my bloody to see a lot of "well done" messages from LFB and even Johnson, despite the difficulties faced yesterday being partly caused by lack of staffing/retention and by Johnson cutting appliances while mayor.

[Trevatanus]

2 hours ago, BurtMacklin said:

mainly staffing, I don’t want to rant though due to the neutral nature of the forum and it’s a tragedy for the people who lost their homes and livelihoods. 

so can they not fill the roles, or are they blocked from recruiting?

[Aspire]

There was a recruitment freeze due to budget cuts, that has now been lifted but it takes nigh on 2yrs to recruit and train 450 firefighters.

[BurtMacklin]

we are actively recruiting and have just taken on a number of transferees, with recruits I do think there is an issue with capacity in the training system and how many they can get through, it’s not like the old in house days where there would be a new course starting every week 

[Rory-495]

Currently we have 2 courses a month starting - some as backlog courses from the last recruitment drive. One course has 7 on it and one has 10 so when they pass out 17 will join the ranks that month. I believe the benchmark is that roughly 25 firefighters retire/leave each month so not even making up what we are loosing.

[LFB92]

6 hours ago, Br9mp81 said:

Dare say i'mnot going to be popular with this,but do not huge amounts of cash get get spend on standby crews for strike/black death etc, could not they had been used for know grass fires, i take it its still a thing

Brigade needs to look at staffing their own appliances with real firefighters before resorting to scab crews. 

It’s awful what’s happened to the many homes that have been destroyed but we need more periods like this to hammer home the point how badly a fully staffed LFB is needed. We’re barely managing at the moment, sending in PAO just to take the pump off anyway it’s a joke and it’s killing morale on station at the moment.

[Keith]

Not much respite today with 125 firefighters attending a 17th floor high rise job:

North Woolwich fire: Blaze breaks out in tower block - BBC News

[Br9mp81]

16 hours ago, LFB92 said:

Brigade needs to look at staffing their own appliances with real firefighters before resorting to scab crews. 

It’s awful what’s happened to the many homes that have been destroyed but we need more periods like this to hammer home the point how badly a fully staffed LFB is needed. We’re barely managing at the moment, sending in PAO just to take the pump off anyway it’s a joke and it’s killing morale on station at the moment.

Like most i do not want to see standby contract staff at all, my point was it seems a lot of money being spend for no real return,it would be interesting to see the attendance times for a lot of these fires where property was lost, the met had been warning it was coming for days, the rule of Ps sadly lacking it seems.