Firefighters across the UK announced they would be taking a 24hour strike starting from 09:00 today

This is following a government decision to put in place an ‘unfair, unworkable and unaffordable’ pension scheme, the government propose firefighters should work until 60 (previously 55) this sparks debate as to whether firefighters will be able to work a high intensity job like this until such a high age. Strikes have been put on hold in Wales and Scotland following discussion.

This strike means there will be greatly reduced fire cover across the country, most fire services are employing Emergency fire crews on a temporary basis, with crews attending less incidents. The criticism of this is that these crews may not know the local area, meaning they could take longer to arrive at incidents; when there is a fire every second is vital.

Calls across the UK will be prioritised to emergencies, authorities are urging the public to be extra vigilant both at home and work. Locally Wiltshire fire service have announced they will be providing a reduced emergency response, however fire cover is being maintained across the region. The services chief officer states ‘while the industrial action is going on, we will still respond to 999 calls but it may take us a little longer than usual to arrive’

Look around you now, if a fire broke out would you be able to control it without the help of the emergency services? At home ensure sure you are extra careful when cooking, smoking and make sure your fire alarms are working correctly. In the workplace, remember the locations of the fire exits and extinguishers, brush up on your workplaces’ fire evacuation route and fire assembly point.