The proposal to close down Blaina Fire Station

Our Receipt for Blaina Fire Station

Heads up Blaina and other supporters of Our Campaign to protect the lives of our children by ensuring that our local fire station in Blaina is not closed down and never will be closed down.

The community of Blaina have paid for that station in full with the lives of two of her sons and Blaina station has the receipt to prove it, in the shape of the Freedom of the Borough they were granted and which you see above.

On 25th April 1996 Blaina Firefighters were given the Freedom of The County of Blaenau Gwent in appreciation of their services and dedication to saving lives in the course of their duties as Firefighters.

And who are those who want to close our station down at the risk of our lives?

They are professional, selfish bean counters.  Bean counters who care more about saving money than lives and communities, especially when the money they save can be paid to themselves in bonuses and higher salaries along with the already over generous perks they also receive.

They should be sacked, not rewarded and that would make for some pretty big savings.

Moving on, we now have access to the official proposal to close down our fire station that you can read in full by clicking on this link here but I can tell you this now, it is a pathetic piece of work.

It is also a shameful piece of work that is full of contradictions that should make it easy for us to demolish the arguments of the money grabbers.

Obviously the people of Blaina care about the surrounding communities and wish them well in their campaigns to save their fire services that are also mentioned in the shameful Review Document, but this site can only be concerned with the community it seeks to serve and that is Blaina.

So, that said, below are the portions of the document that relate to Blaina Fire Station.  The emboldening is mine to highlight information that will be relevant later.

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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.


How busy is my local Fire Station?
In Ebbw Vale, there is:
One Fire Engine, crewed 24/7 (Wholetime).
There are also two other specialist appliances.
The crew of Ebbw Vale attended 1179 incidents between April 2010 and March 2012. They were the first fire engine on the scene 780 times over the same period.

In Tredegar, there is:
One Fire Engine, on an on-call basis known as the Retained Duty System (RDS).
The crew of Tredegar attended 577 incidents between April 2010 and March 2012. They were the first fire engine on the scene 375 times over the same period.

In Abertillery, there is:
One Fire Engine, crewed on an on-call basis known as the Retained Duty System (RDS).
The crew of Abertillery attended 573 incidents between April 2010 and March 2012.
They were the first fire engine on the scene 490 times over the same period.

In Blaina, there is:
One Fire Engine, crewed on an on-call basis known as the Retained Duty System (RDS).
The crew of Blaina attended 459 incidents between April 2010 and March 2012.
They were the first fire engine on the scene 276 times over the same period

What changes are we considering in the Blaenau Gwent Area?
Blaina Fire Station:

Our proposal is to close the fire station in Blaina.
Why these changes?

• Blaina’s fire engine is the least busy appliance and responds to approximately 230 incidents each year.
• Closing Blaina station does not cause an increase in the numbers of predicted fatalities over 100 years in dwelling fires, other building fires or road traffic collisions.
• Blaina fire station was built in the early 60’s and requires a complete re-build due to the quantity of asbestos contained within the structure. The significant cost of re-building the station will be saved if the proposal is agreed.
• Closing Blaina station would save £250,000 per year in ongoing running costs.
• The Local Development Plan for Blaenau Gwent does not identify a significant number of new homes in the lower Ebbw Fach area, which means risk is unlikely to increase in the area over the immediate future.
• The extra workload generated by closing Blaina station can easily be absorbed by the surrounding stations.

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So there you have it.  There are so many weaknesses in the proposers arguments, that were it a fence, there would be so many gaps in it you could drive a dozen fire engines side by side through them.

If the Fire Service really wanted to save money, they would sack the authors of this document that attempts to justify the risking of other peoples lives and property, instead of attempting to alienate for ever,  the people of Blaina who really just want to support them and the men who risk their lives for us every time they are called out.

As an individual, I shall now go through their proposal(s) and show you how ridiculous they are.

When talking about the population of Blaenau Gwent Unitary Authority they state that the approximate population of 70,000 people is predicted to fall by 1.4% over the next ten years which means they are saying that there are going to be around 980 less people for the front line fire services to protect.

But I suggest that the Fire Service has not taken into account the fact that in the Ebbw Vale area, the go ahead for the new £280 million motor racing circuit that is to be built has been given the go ahead and that within the next few years there will be thousands more people moving into the area that is part covered by Blaina Fire Station,

Therefore, I believe that local stations should be given priority now, in new buildings, equipment and funding to be ready for their arrival.

As well as the 3,000 specialist construction workers moving into the area there is also going to be more people travelling the roads to work at the new site after it is completed as there will be 4,000 to 6,000 new jobs created and more homes are going to have to be built to house many of the new workers coming into our area.

We must also take into account that there will be more traffic flow on the A467 as visitors travel to the new race track and explore the surrounding areas whilst staying at the extra accommodation places that will spring up to support these welcome visitors and their money to our valley.

Decorations awarded to John Legge of Blaina Fire Station that is typical of the rest of the crew 
who we will be writing about in the near future

Now let us turn our attention to the performance of our firemen, The  Blaina Boys, who you could compare in some small way, to the Spitfire Pilots of the second world war who sat waiting to be scrambled and once scrambled, flying off to defend their people and property, not knowing whether they would return or not.

Those pilots were heroes - our Blaina Boys are heroes, although they are too modest to say it themselves and I for one salute them.

Between, April 2010 and March 2012 they attended 459 incidents (I am sure there were also many more calls for them to standby to be called and then stood down) and were the first fire engine on the scene 431 times over the same period.  That means they were called out on average 5 times a week - almost once a day.

Remember this - they know from cruel memories that when they leave that station they may never see it again.  Could you live with that thought, could you let your wife or partner live with that worry?

Their "first fire engine on the scene" record is excellent, although I do not put as much weight on this, as in many cases they would have been supporting their brothers and sisters in other fire stations areas but it is still very important when we talk about saving lives locally.

Now I want you to consider this.  There were 451 occasions when the prompt arrival of the Blaina Fire Service, could have meant the difference between life and death for some poor soul.  The incident could be a fire or a road traffic accident where a person needs to be cut from a vehicle fast before perhaps a fire engulfs them.

Sometimes the difference between life and death really is a matter of seconds, be it to raise a ladder to a window or cut a person from a car.

Now let us look at their points they say justifies risking the lives of those you love.

They Say: Blaina’s fire engine is the least busy appliance and responds to approximately 230 incidents each year.

We Say: They are looking at the information from the wrong angle.  We say that there were 230 incidents where lives may have been lost.

They Say: Closing Blaina station does not cause an increase in the numbers of predicted fatalities over 100 years in dwelling fires, other building fires or road traffic collisions.

We Say: Stop talking nonsense.  Who is going to be around in 100 years to dispute your figures?  Future fatalities are impossible to predict and just one bad road accident or fire in a built up area would change your silly statistics and predictions.

They Say: Blaina fire station was built in the early 60’s and requires a complete re-build due to the quantity of asbestos contained within the structure. The significant cost of re-building the station will be saved if the proposal is agreed.

We Say: To our knowledge no person has ever died due to asbestos poisoning at Blaina Fire Station and I and others are curious as to why this fact is now presented as one of the excuses to close the station, when only a short time ago a Senior Fire Officer who will be named later, stated in front of many witnesses that asbestos was not an issue and nothing to do with the planned closure.

This is the second deliberate lie now made by a Senior Fire Officer and I would now suggest that any future meetings with these people be recorded or at the very least minutted so they cannot deny their lies later.

Staying with asbestos though. Now would be an ideal time for the Fire Service to relocate Blaina Fire Station to a new improved building on the Sunrise Estate on the other side of the road, which would enable to them to have even faster access to the A467, thus improving on their already excellent response times in supporting Brynmawr and Ebbw Vale to the North and Abertillery to the South.

They Say: Closing Blaina station would save £250,000 per year in ongoing running costs.

We Say: The Fire Service is well aware from documents already in their possesion, that considerable savings can be made at the back end without having to resort to endangering the lives of Blaina People and stealing from them a vital piece of our infrastructure that makes and binds us as a community.  We also understand that other information will be provided to the Fire Service at the October 7 meeting in Ebbw Vale which will remove the excuse of operating costs as being an issue to keeping our station open.

They Say: The Local Development Plan for Blaenau Gwent does not identify a significant number of new homes in the lower Ebbw Fach area, which means risk is unlikely to increase in the area over the immediate future.

We Say:  More nonsense.  There is clearly increased risk by the very fact that construction work (with the likelihood of accidents) is about to commence on the new race track in the "immediate" future.  Besides, it is NOT about increased risk it is about the risk that exists now and the need to minimize that risk by ensuring that Blaina Fire Station remains open,.

They Say:  The extra workload generated by closing Blaina station can easily be absorbed by the surrounding stations.

We Say: Starting to lose patience with you now lads.  Even whilst I type this, I know for a fact that Blaina has been covering another station that is "Off the Run" and you are well aware that Blaina Fire Station covers other stations to the North and South that are "Off the Run" several times a week.

There is another serious issue that concerns me and makes me question the ability and the right of the authors of this ridiculous proposal document to hold any position in any organisations where lives are at stake, and that is their stupidity in not realising that incidents do not always come in ones.

What if there are two incidents, simultaneously?  What if Brynmawr is covering for Ebbw Vale at an incident and Abertillery is also involved, and then there is another incident in say Abertillery, Blaina or Nantyglo?

The Bean Counters who have taken bonuses and pay rises for closing down Blaina Fire Station could be responsible for the deaths of the very people who have to pay their wages.  Think it through boys, think it through and withdraw your proposal to close Our Station now, before we have to get serious about it.

Ok, they had their say, I have had mine.

You know where to go to read the full document.  Once you have done that you must then go to this Fire Service site and have your say in this matter.

If you do not do this after reading this article then may God forgive you if your inaction causes us to lose Our Fire Station and because of that - lives.

Remember that our next protest is on the 7th of October, just a few days away.  We MUST be there in large numbers to show them the strength of our feeling and our commitment to stopping them taking away Our Fire Station.

To those of you who think we cannot win, I point you to this story here concerning a great-grandmother who has managed to help save her local fire station FOUR times - she won her battle - we can win ours.


Save Blaina Fire Station