When dealing with fires, local knowledge is vital, says Andrew Cooper, the Isle of Wight Command & Control Branch Chair of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
He’s “concerned” about comments made by IW council leader, David Pugh, in a recent radio interview.
“Mr Pugh’s statements expose a lack of comprehension to the limitations of caller location technology and the importance of local knowledge in dealing with emergency 999 calls to the Fire Service.
“Local knowledge is becoming more, not less important in dealing with emergency calls to the Fire Service, with rapidly changing methods of making telephone calls increasingly exposing the weaknesses in automated caller location technology.”
Closure of the Island’s Fire Control Centre?
David Pugh suggested that the IW council may well be looking at closing the Isle of Wight’s own Fire Control Centre, replacing it by a shared one on the mainland.
Andrew Cooper said “We believe these implied proposed changes would deliver an inferior level of service to the public and Firefighters of the Isle of Wight, with little or no savings to local council tax payers (as experience with 5 years late, vastly over budget proposed Regional Fire Control Centre is showing).”
Keen to meet
Staff at the Local Fire Control Centre say that they would welcome the opportunity to meet with Mr Pugh to help him understand the role of Firefighters (Control) and delivery of the emergency service at a local level.
We’ll contact the council to find out their reaction.
Concern over Island fire cover
Concern over cuts to the fire service have already been expressed by the people of Shanklin, after hearing that their fire station would be closed without a replacement being opened.
