Check your smoke alarms, don’t burn candles and drive carefully.
That’s the stark message to the Eden public this week as dozens of local firefighters wait for the nod to go on strike over pay.
Figures for Cumbria show an average of nearly 13 emergency callouts every day, including four fires, and nearly five crashes every week.
Edward Burrows, the Cumbrian-based Fire Brigades Union secretary for the North West, pointed out that there are national agreements in place so that in the event of a “major incident”, firefighters would turn out.
In other words, if Sellafield went up they would respond, but uncertainty remains about smaller but serious callouts.
“We hope everyone is supportive in this action, we don’t want to do it, but if it does happen, there will be quite a significant impact on services,” said Mr Burrows.
“The public do need to think about us because we might not be there — the main message is check your smoke alarms, don’t burn candles and drive safely.”
Countywide, the tale of the tape for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service was as follows in 2021-22:
- 4,688 emergencies
- 1,599 fires
- 477 incidents to assist other agencies
- 256 road traffic collisions
- 132 water rescues
There were also 8,561 home visits, thousands of community safety activities and hundreds of fire safety audits of commercial premises.
The strike date is expected to be set on Thursday by national union leaders, depending on the outcome of negotiations taking place on Wednesday.
With the union obliged to give a fortnight’s notice, Cumbrian-based firefighters could down ladders as soon as Thursday, 23rd February.
It would see picket lines spring-up across stations in Eden, where Penrith is home to the county’s headquarters.
Eden is also served by smaller outlying stations at Alston, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Lazonby, Patterdale and Shap.
With whole-time and part-time firefighters able to take part if they are FBU members, the industrial action also has implications for stations at Keswick and Wigton, but with no concrete news yet on which stations will entirely shut.
An estimated two-thirds of firefighters in Cumbria — amounting to hundreds — are FBU members, causing
logistical headaches for managers.
Mr Burrows, who has worked from Penrith and Kendal in a career spanning 29 years, said the FBU’s main beef is that a five per cent pay offer which has been made has a two per cent commitment from the Government but three per cent is unfunded.
Mr Burrows believes that puts the burden on cash-strapped councils “taking money out of child protection or social services” or could spell future punitive council tax hikes by police and crime commissioner Peter McCall, who takes control from April as part of local government reorganisation.
Mr McCall said: “I am concerned on behalf of the residents of Cumbria, about the threat of industrial action, which I hope may be avoided, and will be watching the national negotiation process carefully.”
