The Frightening Truth about the lack of Fire Cover in Blaenau Gwent

The name on the Engine says Blaina - do not let them steal it from us

It is just as well that I tend to be a private kind of person who does not need loads of friends, as I suspect that this article is not going to be making me any new fans anytime soon.

In fact I fully expect professional politicians, Councillors, the Fire Brigade Union and the Fire Service to condemn me for what I am about to write next and accuse me of being alarmist - well I will let you be the judge of that.

Now this will be a long article but I urge you to take the time to read it in full and think about it, because as you can see from the title, it concerns a very serious subject that could affect the lives of those you care about - it concerns property also but that is only secondary for the purpose of this article.

Now before I became involved in our struggle to save Our Fire Station, I am ashamed to say that I knew absolutely nothing about the way our local Fire and Rescue Service operated, and despite knowing personally several of our local heroes who man the beast that you see above, I knew nothing about the job they did or how they felt when going out on "a shout".  In fact I did not even know what a shout was until a day ago.

Well that has all changed now.  I am fortunate in being a very fast learner and a person who is not frightened to ask questions, even unpleasant ones.  So before I get to the meat of the article you must first learn a little about your local fire station - I am sure those of you who do know how the station works will forgive me.

Most of you will not know the difference between a retained firefighter, who works what they call the Retained Duty System (RDS) and wholetime firefighters.

Like me you probably just thought a fireman was a fireman was a fireman.  How wrong, and how different the two roles are, although both kinds of firefighters take the same risks, the rewards are nowhere near the same.

As pointed out in the shameful (no other word for it) proposal, the fire cover for Blaneau Gwent is as follows:

South Wales Fire & Rescue Service operates five Fire Stations in the Blaenau Gwent Unitary Authority area.

One of the Stations is crewed 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. This is in Ebbw Vale.
The other four Fire Stations are crewed on an On-Call basis, one in Tredegar, one in Abertillery, one in Blaina and one in Brynmawr.

So in Blaenau Gwent, one of the most densely populated areas in South Wales, we frighteningly only have ONE station that is crewed 24 hours a day by whole-time firefighters and just FOUR stations crewed by Retained Firefighters and they want to close one station down - are they insane or that greedy to save money they just do not care?

Dealing with the full time fire fighter is easy.  They work their 40 hours and are then stood down and do not have to respond to "shouts" when off duty, although it is true that some full time fire-workers are also retained fire fighters in the areas where they live.  Well done those men.

Now having spoken to more than a few local and national firefighters over the last few days, there is almost universal agreement that of the two different types of firefighters, the most put upon are the Retained Fire Fighters.

These brave men (and some women) who volunteer to serve us, must be on call for a minimum of 60 hours a week - in fact they really have to be on call for at least 120 hours and need to be, otherwise the station would be unable to carry out its duties.

They have to live or work within 4.5 minutes of their station.  That figure is correct.  No matter what time of day or night it is, they have to be able to be at their fire station in under 4.5 minutes.  Hell, if I am in bed it takes me that long to get out of it.

In Blaina, I can tell you this.  Most of the crew arrive in under 3.5 minutes and I have been told that the late Stephen Griffin who died serving our community in 96 would be at his station and ready to roll in under one minute.

It is also true that many of our firefighters actually sleep at the station during bad weather so they are guaranteed to be available in case of being needed - that is true dedication and commitment to our community.

Now I am one of the most hard hearted men you will ever meet but speaking in private to some of our local heroes, I felt tears come to my eyes as they told me in confidence about what it is like to hear their bleepers go at two in the morning and having their wives, who have never forgotten the fate of Stephen Griffin and Kevin Lane (who died trying to save young Daniel Harford) beg them not to go.

Thank your God if you have one, that when you hear the siren of the fire engine in the night, that you are not one of the men inside it, checking your gear with the memory of your young children running from their bedrooms, clutching your legs whilst their mother pulls them away so you can go do your duty.  You know Huw, I find it very difficult not to hate you at this moment in time.

They do their duty and most of us just take them for granted.  Shame on us.

And here is where I make myself unpopular.

Most Welsh MPs, Assembly Members and County Councillors with a few notable exceptions like Lisa Winnett, do not have a clue as to how thin on the ground our fire forces are and how unfairly treated are the Retained Firefighters who risk their lives for us.  I will do a separate article on remunerations and conditions later.

The politicians should remember the maiden speech made by my late boyhood friend Peter Law MP with regards to what happens when you do not listen to the people.  Listen now.  Save Blaina Fire Station.

Then looking at the Fire Brigade Union, whilst I welcome the statement made by South Wales Brigade Secretary, Mark Watt, when he said on their official website ;

“This closure would slow response times and increase the risk of death, injury and loss of property among the community.

“This is a highly contentious issue, as the closure would leave the poorest areas in Europe without a fire station.

“It’s also highly emotive, as after the tragedy on Zephaniah Way firefighters and local residents pledged to do everything we could to ensure that the memories of those two fallen brothers were not forgotten.

“Blaina Fire Station has been vital to the history and development of the UK fire service and we must make sure it stays open.”

It is my honest opinion that the Fire Brigade Union has not done enough for the workers they are more than handsomely rewarded for representing and why was it left to others to discover the discrepancies in the proposal?

Yes, I know that people like Mark must be careful what they say because at the end of the day they work for Huw Jakeway but that being the case they must find another way of alerting the public to the danger they are in, because of the bean counters who are now ruling the roost in the Fire Service.

Now before you look at the image of the chart below, I must make it clear now and after the image that what I say next is not an attack on any other fire station in the Blaneau Gwent area.  In fact I promise now, that should any of those stations face closure, then I will campaign as hard for them as I hope I am doing for Blaina.

Shows in hours when Fire Engine Not Available between January and September of this year

Where I got the data from is neither here nor there.  This site is now making friends across the country and the information coming in is proving most useful as Huw may well discover to his cost.  Just know this - the information in the graph above is 100% correct.

So what are we looking at?

Well what you are looking at is the number of hours during the period shown when the seven stations named were "off the call" which sounds a bit better than not available for duty.

So what does that mean?  Well basically what it means is that when a station is "off the call" then it is Blaina or Abertillery who are called on to cover for the station that is down and having to leave its home area unprotected.  Not good enough and not acceptable in my opinion.

Now I realise that neither Rhymney or Blaenavon are part of the Blaenau Gwent area but they are shown to highlight just how efficient Blaina Fire Station is.

Now the reasons for a station being off call are many.  Training, staffing and maintenance being the most common,

Because both Abertillery and Blaina are showing an almost 100% availability for duty, they could make the figures of the other stations look bad, anyone making that assumption would be wrong.

Those stations are all within the acceptable limits and planned for.  Ebbw Vale with its full time workers was mainly off the run for training purposes.  Training they would have not been able to have carried out without Blaina covering for them.

Brynmawr,  I understand has had a few staffing problems as it is very very difficult for any station to recruit retained firefighters because of the poor pay and working conditions they are expected to operate under.

So why are Blaina and Abertillery providing almost 100% cover - it would have been 100% were it not for the strike that they were ordered to support, although as one firefighter told me in private "Do you honestly think Paul we would refuse to answer a shout to save friends and families".

Of course not, none would have been able to stop the Boys of Blaina going out to save the lives of friends and families and that is what makes Blaina not only unique but also the station with the best availability.  Strong ties to the local community that they serve.

They are not workers for the bean counters to play with, they are men who do what they do because they care.

I am going to finish this article now.  Whilst typing, I have decided to withhold for now, information on Huw Jakeway and his suitability for the position he holds until a later date, as the article itself will need to be quite large.

I beg all of you who read this to link it and be at the protest on Monday to show your support for our boys in the Blaina Fire Station.